JUL  1  7  1972 

43 


THE 


1955 


St«A^ 


.<^ 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


BV  THE    REV.    PROFESSOR 

G.    G.  'FINDLAY,  B.A., 

Headinglcy  College,  Leeds. 


NEW  YORK : 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  &  SON, 
51    East   Tenth   Street,    near   Broadway. 

1893.  f 


CONTENTS, 


THE  PROLOGUE. 

Chapter  i.  i  —  la 
CHAPTER  I. 

PAGB 
THE   ADDRESS  •-..••••.3 

CHARIER    ft 
lliE    SALUTATION  -"--..>•••       19 

CHAPTER    HI. 

IHE    ANATHEMA     -••--••••34 


THE   PERSONAL   HLSTORY. 
Chapter  i.  11 — ii.  21. 

CHAPTER   IV. 
Paul's  gospel  revealed  by  christ  -       •       •       •        .    53 

CHAPTER  V. 
Paul's  divine  commission  ----.-.es 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGE 

PAUL  AND   THE    PRIMITIVE    CHURCH        -  •  •  •  -      83 

CHAPTER   VIL 

PAUL   AND   THE    FALSE    BRETHREN  -  •  •  •     98 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
PAUL  AND  THE  THREE   PILLARS    -  -  •  •  •  *II3 

CHAPTER   IX, 
PAUL  AND   PETER   AT  ANTIOCH      -  •  •  •  •  -1 29 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE   PRINCIPLES   AT   STAKE  •-•••-   146 

THE  DOCTRINAL  POLEMIC, 
Ckax>'*£r  ill.  t — V.  12. 

CHAPTER  XL 

THE  GALATIAN    FOLLY  -----••  155 

CHAPTER   XII. 
Abraham's  biessing  and  the  law's  curse     •       •       -  i8o 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE  COVENANT  OF  PROMISE  -•••«•   196 

CHAPTE      XIV. 

THE   DESIGN   OF  THE   LAW     -  -  •  •  -  -  -211 


CONTENTS.  y\\ 


CHAPTER   XV. 

PAGE 

THE   EMANCIPATED   SONS   OF   G^D  -  •  -  •  •  22/ 


CHAPTER   XVI. 
THE   heir's   coming   OF   AGE  --•••-  242 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE   RETURN   TO   BONDAGE    -  -  -  •  •  •  -257 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 
Paul's  entreaty        ---.-•••-  272 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE  STORY   OF   HAGAR  -  .  -  .  •  -   2S6 

CHAPTER    XX, 
SHALL  THE  GALATIANS   BE   CIRCUMCISED?    -  -  -  -   302 

CHAPTER   XXl 

THK   HINDERERS   AND  TROUBLERS  -  -  -  •  -  316 

THE  ETHICAL   APPLICATION. 
Chapter  v.  13 — vi.  10. 

CHAPTER   XXIL 
THE   PERILS   OF   LIBERTY        ---•••-   333 

CHAPTER   XXIII. 

CHRIST'S    SPIRIT   AND    HUMAN    FLESH     -  .  -  -  -   347 


viii  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

PAGE 

THE   WORKS  OF  THE   FLESH  -  -  -  -  -  -  3^1 


CHAPTER   XXV. 
THE   FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  -  -  -  -  -  -  "375 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

OUR   brother's   burden    and   OUR    OWN        -  •  -  -    390 

CHAPTER   XXVII. 
SOWING   AND   REAPING  ...*---  405 

THE  EPILOGUE. 

Chapter  vi.  Ii — 18. 

CHAPTER   XXVIII. 
the   false   and  THE  TRUE   GLORYING  •  •  -  -  421 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

RITTTAL   NOTHING:    CHARACTER   EVERYTHING  •  •  -  435 

CHAPTER   XXX. 
THE   BRANE    OF    JESUS  --.-.--  448 


THE     PROLOGUE. 
Chapter  i.   i — lo. 


CHAPTER  L 

THE    ADDRESS. 

"  Paul,  an  apostle  (not  from  men,  neither  through  man,  but  through 
Jesus  Christ,  and  God  the  Father,  who  raised  Him  from  the  dead), 
and  all  the  brethren  which  are  with  me,  unto  the  Churches  of  Galatia."  * 
— Gal.  i.  i,  2. 

ANTIQUITY  has  nothing  to  show  more  notable  in 
its  kind,  or  more  precious,  than  this  letter  of  Paul 
to  the  Churches  of  Galatia.  It  takes  us  back,  in  some 
respects  nearer  than  any  other  document  we  possess, 
to  the  beginnings  of  Christian  theology  and  the 
Christian  Church.  In  it  the  spiritual  consciousness 
of  Christianity  first  reveals  itself  in  its  distinctive 
character  and  its  full  strength,  free  from  the  trammels 
of  the  past,  realizing  the  advent  of  the  new  kingdom 
of  God  that  was  founded  in  the  death  of  Christ.  It 
is  the  voice  of  the  Church  testifying  ''God  hath  sent 
forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  our  hearts."  Buried 
for  a  thousand  years  under  the  weight  of  the  Catholic 
legalism,  the  teaching  of  this  Epistle  came  to  life  again 
in  the  rise  of  Protestantism.  Martin  Luther  put  it 
.  to  his  lips  as  a  trumpet  to  blow  the  reveille  of  the 
Reformation.  His  famous  Commentary  summoned 
enslaved  Christendom  to  recover  "the  liberty  wherewith 

*  The  text  used  in  this  exposition  is,  with  very  few  exceptions,  that 
of  the  Revised  English  Version,  or  its  uiargin. 


4  THE  EPJSTLE   TO    THE   GALATIANS. 

Christ  hath  made  us  free."  Of  all  the  great  Reformer's 
writings  this  was  the  widest  in  its  influence  and  the 
dearest  to  himself.  For  the  spirit  of  Paul  lived  again 
in  Luther,  as  in  no  other  since  the  Apostle's  day. 
The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  is  the  charter  of  Evan- 
gelical faith. 

The  historical  criticism  of  the  present  century  has 
brought  this  writing  once  more  to  the  front  of  the 
conflict  of  faith.  Born  in  controversy,  it  seems  inevit- 
ably to  be  born  for  controversy.  Its  interpretation 
forms  the  pivot  of  the  most  thoroughgoing  recent  dis- 
cussions touching  the  beginnings  of  Christian  history 
and  the  authenticity  of  the  New  Testament  record 
The  Galatian  Epistle  is,  in  fact,  the  key  of  New  Testa- 
ment Apologetics.  Round  it  the  Roman  and  Corinthian 
Letters  group  themselves,  forming  together  a  solid, 
impregnable  quaternion,  and  supplying  a  fixed  starting- 
point  and  an  indubitable  test  for  the  examination  of  the 
critical  questions  belonging  to  the  Apostolic  age.  What- 
ever else  may  be  disputed,  it  is  agreed  that  there  was 
an  apostle  Paul,  who  wrote  these  four  Epistles  to  certain 
Christian  societies  gathered  out  of  heathenism,  com- 
munities numerous,  widely  scattered,  and  containing 
men  of  advanced  intelligence;  and  this  within  thirty 
years  of  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ.  Every  critic  must 
reckon  with  this  fact.  The  most  sceptical  criticism 
makes  a  respectful  pause  before  our  Epistle.  Hopeless 
of  destroying  its  testimony,  Rationalism  treats  it  with 
an  even  exaggerated  deference  ;  and  seeks  to  extract 
evidence  from  it  against  its  companion  witnesses  amongst 
the  New  Testament  writings.  This  attempt,  however 
misdirected,  is  a  signal  tribute  to  the  importance  of  the 
document,  and  to  the  force  with  which  the  personality 
of  the   writer   and    the   conditions  of  the    time  have 


i.  1,2.]  THE  ADDRESS. 


stamped  themselves  upon  it.  The  deductions  of  the 
Baurian  criticism  appear  to  us  to  rest  on  a  narrow 
and  arbitrary  examination  of  isolated  passages ;  they 
spring  from  a  mistaken  a  priori  view  of  the  historical 
situation.  Granting  however  to  these  inferences, 
which  will  meet  us  as  we  proceed,  their  utmost 
weight,  they  still  leave  the  testimony  of  Paul  to  the 
supernatural  character  of  Christianity  substantially 
intact. 

Of  the  four  major  Epistles,  this  one  is  superlatively  i 
characteristic  of  its  author.  It  is  Paulinissima  Paul- 
inariDH — most  Pauline  of  Pauline  things.  It  is  largely 
autobiographical ;  hence  its  peculiar  value.  Reading  j 
it,  we  watch  history  in  the  making.  We  trace  the  rise 
of  the  new  religion  in  the  typical  man  of  the  epoch. 
The  master-builder  of  the  Apostolic  Church  stands 
before  us,  at  the  crisis  of  his  work.  He  lets  us  look 
into  his  heart,  and  learn  the  secret  of  his  power.  We 
come  to  know  the  Apostle  Paul  as  we  know  scarcely 
any  other  of  the  world's  great  minds.  We  find  in  him 
a  man  of  the  highest  intellectual  and  spiritual  powers, 
equally  great  in  passion  and  in  action,  as  a  thinker 
and  a  leader  of  men.  But  at  every  step  of  our 
acquaintance  the  Apostle  points  us  beyond  him.self ;  he 
says,  "  It  is  not  I :  it  is  Christ  that  lives  in  me."  If 
this  Epistle  teaches  us  the  greatness  of  Paul,  it  teaches 
us  all  the  more  the  Divine  greatness  of  Jesus  Christ, 
before  whom  that  kingly  intellect  and  passionate  heart 
bowed  in  absolute  devotion. 

The  situation  which  the  Epistle  reveals  and  the 
personal  references  in  which  it  abounds  are  full  of 
interest  at  every  point.  They  furnish  quite  essential 
data  to  the  historian  of  the  Early  Church.  We  could 
wish  that  the  Apostle,  telling  us  so  much,  had  told  us 


THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


more.  His  allusions,  clear  enough,  we  must  suppose, 
to  the  first  readers,  have  lent  themselves  subsequent!}' 
to  very  conflicting  interpretations.  But  as  they  stand, 
they  are  invaluable.  The  fragmentary  narrative  <>{  the 
Acts  requires,  especially  in  its  earlier  sections,  all  the 
illustration  that  can  be  obtained  from  other  sources. 
The  conversion  of  Paul,  and  the  Council  at  Jerusalem, 
events  of  capital  importance  for  the  history  of  Apostolic 
times,  are  thereby  set  in  a  light  certainly  more  complete 
and  satisfactory  than  is  furnished  in  Luke's  narrative, 
taken  by  itself.  And  Paul's  references  to  the  Judean 
Church  and  its  three  "pillars,"  touch  the  crucial  question 
of  New  Testament  criticism,  namely  that  concerning 
the  relation  of  the  Gentile  Apostle  to  Jewish  Christianity 
and  the  connection  between  his  theology  and  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus.  Our  judgement  respecting  the  conflict 
between  Peter  and  Paul  at  Antioch  in  particular  will 
determine  our  whole  conception  of  the  legalist  con- 
troversy, and  consequently  of  the  course  of  Church 
history  during  the  first  two  centuries.  Around  these 
cursory  allusions  has  gathered  a  contest  only  less 
momentous  than  that  from  which  they  sprung. 

The  personal  and  the  doctrinal  element  are  equally 
prominent  in  this  Epistle  ;  and  appear  in  a  combination 
characteristic  of  the  writer.  Paul's  theology  is  the 
theology  of  experience.  "  It  pleased  God,"  he  says, 
"to  reveal  His  Son  in  me"  (ch.  i.  i6).  His  teaching 
is  cast  in  a  psychological  mould.  It  is  largely  a  record 
of  the  Apostle's  spiritual  history ;  it  is  the  expression 
of  a  living,  inward  process — a  personal  appropriation 
of  Christ,  and  a  growing  realization  of  the  fulness  of 
the  Godhead  in  Him.  The  doctrine  of  Paul  was  as  far 
as  possible  removed  from  being  the  result  of  abstract 
deduction,  or  any  mere  combination  of  data  externally 


1.  I,  2.]  THE  ADDRESS. 


given.  In  his  individual  consciousness,  illuminated  by 
the  vision  of  Christ  and  penetrated  by  the  Spirit  of 
God;  he  found  his  message  for  the  world.  "  We  believe, 
and  therefore  speak.  We  have  received  the  Spirit  of 
God,  that  we  may  know  the  things  freely  given  us  of 
God  : "  sentences  like  these  show  us  very  clearly  how 
the  Apostle's  doctrine  formed  itself  in  his  mind.  His 
apprehension  of  Christ,  above  all  of  the  cross,  was  the 
focus,  the  creative  and  governing  centre,  of  all  his 
thoughts  concerning  God  and  man,  time  and  eternity. 
In  the  light  of  this  knowledge  he  read  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, he  interpreted  the  earthly  life  and  teaching  of 
Jesus.  On  the  ground  of  this  personal  sense  of  salvation 
he  confronted  Peter  at  Antioch ;  on  the  same  ground 
he  appeals  to  the  vacillating  Galatians,  sharers  with 
himself  in  the  new  life  of  the  Spirit.  Here  lies  the 
nerve  of  his  argument  in  this  Epistle.  The  theory  of 
the  relation  of  the  Law  to  the  Abrahamic  promise 
developed  in  the  third  chapter,  is  the  historical  counter- 
part of  the  relation  of  the  legal  to  the  evangelical 
consciousness,  as  he  had  experienced  the  two  states 
in  turn  within  his  own  breast.  The  spirit  of  Paul  was 
a  microcosm,  in  which  the  course  of  the  world's 
rehgious  evolution  was  summed  up,  and  brought  to 
the  knowledge  of  itself.  . 

The  Apostle's  influence  over  the  minds  of  others  was 
due  in  great  part  to  the  extraordinary  force  with  which 
he  apprehended  the  facts  of  his  own  spiritual  nature. 
Through  the  depth  and  intensity  of  his  personal  ex- 
perience he  touched  the  experience  of  his  fellows,  he 
seized  on  those  universal  truths  that  are  latent  in  the 
consciousness  of  mankind,  ''by  manifestation  of  the 
truth  commending  himself  to  every  man's  conscience 
in  the  sight  of  God."     But  this  knowledge  of  the  things 


8  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 

of  God  was  not  the  mere  fruit  of  reflection  and  self- 
searching  ;  it  was  "  the  ministration  of  the  Spirit." 
Paul  did  not  simply  know  Christ;  he  was  one  with 
Christ,  "joined  to  the  Lord,  one  spirit "  with  Him. 
He  did  not  therefore  speak  out  of  the  findings  of  his 
own  spirit ;  the  absolute  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  truth  and 
of  Christ,  spoke  in  him.  Truth,  as  he  knew  it,  was 
the  self-assertion  of  a  Divine  life.  And  so  this  handful 
of  old  letters,  broken  and  casual  in  form,  with  their 
"  rudeness  of  speech,"  their  many  obscurities,  their 
rabbinical  logic,  have  stirred  the  thoughts  of  men  and 
swayed  their  lives  with  a  power  greater  perhaps  than 
belongs  to  any  human  utterances,  saving  only  those 
of  the  Divine  Master. 

The  features  of  Paul's  style  show  themselves  here  in 
their  most  pronounced  form.  "  The  style  is  the  man." 
And  the  whole  man  is  in  this  letter.  Other  Epistles 
bring  into  relief  this  or  that  quality  of  the  Apostle's 
disposition  and  of  his  manner  as  a  writer ;  here  all  are 
present.  The  subtlety  and  trenchant  vigour  of  Pauline 
dialectic  are  nowhere  more  conspicuous  than  in  the 
discussion  with  Peter  in  ch.  ii.  The  discourse  on 
Promise  and  Law  in  ch.  iii.  is  a  master-piece  of 
exposition,  unsurpassed  in  its  keenness  of  insight, 
breadth  of  view,  and  skill  of  application.  Such  passages 
as  ch.  i.  15,  16;  ii.  19,  20;  vi.  14,  take  us  into  the 
heart  of  the  Apostle's  teaching,  and  reveal  its  mystical 
depth  of  intuition.  Behind  the  masterful  dialectician 
we  find  the  spiritual  seer,  the  man  of  contemplation, 
whose  fellowship  is  with  the  eternal  and  unseen.  And 
the  emotional  temperament  of  the  writer  has  left  its 
impress  on  this  Epistle  not  less  distinctly  than  his 
mental  and  spiritual  gifts.  The  denunciations  of  ch.  i. 
6 — 10;    ii.  4,  5;    iv.  9;  v.  7 — 12;   vi.   I2— 14,  burn 


i.  I,2.J  THE  ADDRESS. 


with  a  concentrated  intensity  of  passion,  a  sublime  and 
holy  scorn  against  the  enemies  of  the  cross,  such  as 
a  nature  like  Paul's  alone  is  capable  of  feeling.  Nor 
has  the  Apostle  penned  anything  on  the  other  hand 
more  amiable  and  touching,  more  winningly  frank  and 
tender  in  appeal,  than  the  entreaty  of  ch.  iv.  ii — 20. 
His  last  sentence,  in  ch.  vi.  17,  is  an  irresistible  stroke 
of  pathos.  The  ardour  of  his  soul,  his  vivacity  of  mind 
and  quick  sensibility,  are  apparent  throughout.  Those 
sudden  turns  of  thought  and  bursts  of  emotion  that 
occur  in  all  his  Epistles  and  so  much  perplex  their 
interpreters,  are  especially  numerous  in  this.  And 
yet  we  find  that  these  interruptions  are  never  allowed 
to  divert  the  writer  from  his  purpose,  nor  to  destroy 
the  sequence  of  his  thought.  They  rather  carry  it 
forward  with  greater  vehemence  along  the  chosen 
course,  as  storms  will  a  strong  and  well-manned  ship. 
The  Epistle  is  strictly  a  unity.  It  is  written,  as  one 
might  say,  at  a  single  breath,  as  if  under  pressure  and 
in  stress  of  mind.  There  is  little  of  the  amplitude 
of  expression  and  the  delight  in  lingering  over  some 
favourite  idea  that  characterize  the  later  Epistles.  Nor 
is  there  any  passage  of  sustained  eloquence  to  compare 
with  those  that  are  found  in  the  Roman  and  Corinthian 
letters.  The  business  on  which  the  Apostle  writes  is 
too  urgent,  his  anxiety  too  great,  to  allow  of  freedom 
and  discursiveness  of  thought.  Hence  this  Epistle  is 
to  an  unusual  degree  closely  packed  in  matter,  rapid  in 
movement,  and  severe  in  tone. 

In  its  construction  the  Epistle  exhibits  an  almost 
dramatic  character.  It  is  full  of  action  and  animation. 
There  is  a  gradual  unfolding  of  the  subject,  and  a  skil- 
ful combination  of  scene  and  incident  brought  to  bear 
on  the  solution  of  the  crucial  question.     The  Apostle 


10  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


himself,  the  insidious  Judaizers,  and  the  wavering 
Galatians,— these  are  the  protagonists  of  the  action; 
with  Peter  and  the  Church  at  Jerusalem  playing  a 
secondary  part,  and  Abraham  and  Moses,  Isaac  and 
Ishmael,  appearing  in  the  distance.  The  first  Act 
conducts  us  rapidly  from  scene  to  scene  till  we  behold 
Paul  labouring  amongst  the  Gentiles,  and  the  Churches 
of  Judea  listening  with  approval  to  the  reports  of  his 
success.  The  Council  of  Jerusalem  opens  a  new  stage 
in  the  history.  Now  Gentile  liberties  are  at  stake; 
but  Titus'  circumcision  is  successfully  resisted,  and 
Paul  as  the  Apostle  of  the  Uncircumcised  is  acknow- 
ledged by  "  the  pillars "  as  their  equal ;  and  finally 
Peter,  when  he  betrays  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  at 
Antioch,  is  corrected  by  the  Gentile  Apostle.  The 
third  chapter  carries  us  away  from  the  present  con- 
flict into  the  region  of  first  principles, — to  the  Abrahamic 
Covenant  with  its  spiritual  blessing  and  world-wide 
promise,  opposed  by  the  condemning  Mosaic  Law,  an 
opposition  finally  resolved  by  the  coming  of  Christ  and 
the  gift  of  His  Spirit  of  adoption.  At  this  point  the 
Apostle  turns  the  gathered  force  of  his  argument  upon 
his  readers,  and  grapples  with  them  front  to  front  in 
the  expostulation  carried  on  from  ch.  iv.  8  to  v.  12, 
in  which  the  story  of  Hagar  forms  a  telling  episode. 
The  fifth  and  closing  Act,  extending  to  the  middle  of 
ch.  vi.,  turns  on  the  antithesis  of  Flesh  and  Spirit, 
bringing  home  the  contention  to  the  region  of  ethics, 
and  exhibiting  to  the  Galatians  the  practical  effect  of 
their  following  the  Pauline  or  the  Judaistic  leadership. 
Paul  and  the  Primitive  Church ;  Judaism  and  Gentile- 
Christian  liberties  ;  the  Covenants  of  Promise  and  of 
Law ;  the  circumcision  or  non-circumcision  of  the 
Galatians ;  the  dominion  of  Flesh  or  Spirit  :  these  are 


i.  1,2.]  THE  ADDRESS,  ii 

the  contrasts  through  which  the  Epistle  advances.  Its 
centre  hes  in  the  decisive  question  given  in  the  fourth 
of  these  antitheses.  If  we  were  to  fix  it  in  a  single 
point,  ver.  2  of  ch.  v.  is  the  sentence  we  should 
choose : — 

"  Behold,  I  Paul  say  unto  you, 

If  ye  be  circumcised,  Christ  will  profit  you  nothing." 

The  above  analysis  may  be  reduced  to  the  common 
threefold  division,  followed  in  this  exposition  : — viz. 
(l)  Personal  History,  ch.  i.  1 1 — ii.  21  ;  (2)  Doctrinal 
Polemic,  ch.  iii.  I — v.  12;  (3)  Ethical  Application,  ch. 
V.  13 — vi.  10. 

The  epistolary  Introduction  forms  the  Prologue,  ch. 
1.  I — 10  ;  and  an  Epilogue  is  appended,  by  way  of 
renewed  warning  and  protestation,  followed  by  the 
concluding  signature  and  benediction, — Xh.  vi.  1 1 — 18. 

The  Address  occupies  the  first  two  verses  of  the 
Epistle. 

I.  On  the  one  side  is  the  writer:  "  Paul,  an  Apostle." 
In  his  earliest  Letters  (to  Thessalonica)  the  title  is 
wanting;  so  also  in  Philippians  and  Philemon.  The 
last  instance  explains  the  other  two.  To  the  Macedonian 
Churches  Paul  writes  more  in  the  style  of  friendship 
than  authority  :  "  for  love's  sake  he  rather  entreats." 
With  the  Galatians  it  is  different.  He  proceeds  to 
define  his  apostleship  in  terms  that  should  leave  no 
possible  doubt  respecting  its  character  and  rights : 
**  not  from  men,"  he  adds,  **  nor  through  man ;  but 
through  Jesus  Christ,  and  God  the  Father,  that  raised 
Him  from  the  dead." 

This  reads  like  a  contradiction  of  some  statement 
made  by  Paul  s  opposers.  Had  they  insinuated  that 
he   was  ''an   apostle   from   men,"    that    his  office  was 


12  THE   EPISTLK    TO    THE   GALATIANS. 


derived,  like  their  own,  only  from  the  mother  Church 
in  Jerusalem?  Such  insinuations  would  very  well 
serve  their  purpose  ;  and  if  they  were  made,  Paul  would 
be  sure  not  to  lose  a  moment  in  meeting  them. 

The  word  apostle  had  a  certain  latitude  of  meaning.* 
It  was  already,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  a  term  of 
Jewish  official  usage  when  our  Lord  appHed  it  to  His 
chosen  Twelve.  It  signified  a  delegate  or  envoy ,  ac- 
credited by  some  public  authority,  and  charged  with  a 
special  message.  We  can  understand  therefore  its 
application  to  the  emissaries  of  particular  Churches — 
of  Jerusalem  or  Antioch,  for  example — despatched 
as  their  messengers  to  other  Churches,  or  with  a 
general  commission  to  proclaim  the  Gospel.  The 
recently  discovered  "  Teaching  of  the  Apostles  "  shows 
that  this  use  of  the  title  continued  in  Jewish-Christian 
circles  to  the  end  of  the  first  century,  alongside  of  the 
restricted  and  higher  use.  The  lower  apostleship 
belonged  to  Paul  in  common  with  Barnabas  and  Silas 
and  many  others. 

In  the  earlier  period  of  his  ministry,  the  Apostle  was 
seemingly  content  to  rank  in  public  estimation  with  his 
companions  in  the  Gentile  mission.  But  a  time  came 
when   he  was  compelled    to    arrogate   to   himself  the 


*  Compare  Acts  xiv.  4,  14  (^Barnabas  and  Patil)  ;  i  Thess.  ii.  6 
(^Paiil  and  his  comrades)  ;  Rom.  xvi.  7  {Androniats  and  Junias^  ; 
2  Cor.  viii.  23  ( Titus  and  others,  "  apostles  of  the  churches  ") ;  2  Cor. 
xi.  13  ("false  apostles"  :  fudcan  emissaries)  \  also  Rev.  ii.  2;  Heb. 
iii.  I  ;  John  xiii.  16.  On  the  N.T.  use  of  apostle,  see  Lightfoot's 
Galatians,  pp.  92 — loi  ;  but  especially  Huxtable's  Dissertation  in  the 
Pulpit  Commentary  (Galatians),  pp.  xxiii. — 1.,  the  most  satisfactory 
elucidation  of  the  subject  we  have  met  with.  Prebendary  Huxtable 
however  presses  his  argument  too  far,  when  he  insists  that  St.  Paul 
held  his  higher  commission  entirely  in  abeyance  until  the  crisis  of  the 
Judaic  controversy. 


i.  I,  2.]  THE  ADDRESS.  13 

higher  dignity.  His  right  thereto  was  acknowledged 
at  the  memorable  conference  in  Jerusalem  by  the 
leaders  of  the  Jewish  Church.  So  we  gather  from  the 
language  of  ch.  ii.  7 — 9.  But  the  full  exercise  of 
his  authority  was  reserved  for  the  present  emergency, 
when  all  his  energy  and  influence  were  required  to 
stem  the  tide  of  the  Judaistic  reaction.  We  can  well 
imagine  that  Paul  "gentle  in  the  midst "  of  his  flock 
and  "  not  seeking  to  be  of  weight  "  (l  Thess.  ii.  6,  7), 
had  hitherto  said  as  little  as  need  be  on  the  subject 
of  his  official  rights.  His  modesty  had  exposed  him 
to  misrepresentations  both  in  Corinth  and  in  Galatia. 
He  will  "have"  these  people  "to  know"  that  his 
gospel  is  in  the  strictest  sense  Divine,  and  that  he 
received  his  commission,  as  certainly  as  any  of  the 
Twelve,  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  Christ  Himself  (ver.  11). 
"Not  from  men"  excludes  human  derivation;  "not 
through  man,"  human  intervention  in  the  conferment 
of  Paul's  office.  The  singular  number  (t^ian)  replaces 
the  plural  in  the  latter  phrase,  because  it  stands 
immediately  opposed  to  "  Jesus  Christ "  (a  striking 
witness  this  to  His  Divinity).  The  second  clause 
carries  the  negation  farther  than  the  first;  for  a  call 
from  God  may  be,  and  commonly  is,  imposed  by 
human  hands.  There  are,  says  Jerome,  four  kinds  of 
Christian  ministers  :  first,  those  sent  neither  from  men 
nor  through  man,  like  the  prophets  of  old  time  and  the 
Apostles;  secondly,  those  who  are  from  God,  but 
through  man,  as  it  is  with  their  legitimate  successors  ; 
thirdly,  those  who  are  from  men,  but  not  from  God,  as 
when  one  is  ordained  through  mere  human  favour  and 
flattery ;  the  fourth  class  consists  of  such  as  have  their 
call  neither  from  God  nor  man,  but  wholly  from  them- 
selves,  as  with   false  prophets   and  the  false  apostles 


14  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


of  whom  Paul  speaks.  His  vocation,  the  Apostle 
declares,  was  superhuman,  alike  in  its  origin  and  in 
the  channel  by  which  it  was  conveyed.  It  was  no 
voice  of  man  that  summoned  Saul  of  Tarsus  from  the 
ranks  of  the  enemies  to  those  of  the  servants  of  Christ, 
and  gave  him  the  message  he  proclaimed.  Damascus 
and  Jerusalem  in  turn  acknowledged  the  grace  given 
unto  him ;  Antioch  had  sent  him  forth  on  her  behalf  to 
the  regions  beyond  :  but  he  was  conscious  of  a  call 
anterior  to  all  this,  and  that  admitted  of  no  earthly 
validation.  "  Am  I  not  an  apostle  ?  "  he  exclaims, 
'*  have  I  not  seen  Jesus  our  Lord?"  (l  Cor.  ix.  l). 
"  Truly  the  signs  of  the  Apostle  were  WTOught  in  him," 
both  in  the  miraculous  powers  attending  his  office,  and 
in  those  moral  and  spiritual  qualities  of  a  minister  of 
God  in  which  he  w^as  inferior  to  none.*  For  the  exercise 
of  his  ministry  he  was  responsible  neither  to  "  those  of 
repute  "  at  Jerusalem,  nor  to  his  censurers  at  Corinth  ; 
but  to  Christ  who  had  bestowed  it  (l  Cor.  iv.  3,  4). 

The  call  of  the  Apostle  proceeded  also  from  "  God 
the  Father,  who  raised  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead." 
Christ  was  in  this  act  the  mediator,  declaring  the 
Supreme  will.  In  other  places,  more  briefly,  he  styles 
himself  "Apostle  by  the  will  of  God."  His  appoint- 
ment took  place  by  a  Divine  intervention,  in  which 
the  ordinary  sequence  of  events  was  broken  through. 
Long  after  the  Saviour  in  His  bodily  presence  had 
ascended  to  heaven,  when  in  the  order  of  nature  it  was 
impossible  that  another  Apostle  should  be  elected,  and 
when  the  administration  of  His  Church  had  been  for 
several  years  carried  on  by  human  hands.  He  appeared 
once  more  on  earth  for  the  purpose  of  making  this  man 

*   I  Cor  XV.  10  ;  2  Cor.  iv.  2  ;  vi.  3 — 10  ;  xi.  5,  16 — xii.  13. 


i.  1,2.]  rilE  ADDRESS. 


Ilis  "minister  and  witness;"  He  appeared  in  the 
name  of  ''the  Father,  who  had  raised  Ilim  from  the 
dead."  This  interposition  gave  to  Paul's  ministry  an 
exceptional  character.  While  the  mode  of  his  election 
was  in  one  aspect  humbling,  and  put  him  in  the 
position  of  "the  untimely  one,"  the  "least  of  the 
Apostles/'  whose  appearance  in  that  capacity  was 
unlooked  for  and  necessarily  open  to  suspicion  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  it  was  glorious  and  exalting,  since  it  so 
richly  displayed  the  Divine  rnercy  and  the  transforming 
power  of  grace. 

But  why  does  he  say,  who  raised  Him  from  the  dead? 
Because  it  was  the  risen  Jesus  that  he  saw,  and  that  he 
was  conscious  of  seeing  in  the  moment  of  the  vision. 
The  revelation  that  arrested  him  before  Damascus, 
in  the  same  moment  convinced  him  that  Jesus  was 
risen,  and  that  he  himself  was  called  to  be  His  servant. 
These  two  convictions  were  inseparably  linked  in 
Paul's  recollections.  As  surely  as  God  the  Father  had 
raised  His  Son  Jesus  from  the  dead  and  given  Him 
glory,  so  surely  had  the  glorified  Jesus  revealed  Him- 
self to  Saul  his  persecutor  to  make  him  His  Apostle. 
He  was,  not  less  truly  than  Peter  or  John,  a  witness  of 
His  resurrection.  The  message  of  the  Resurrection 
was  the  burden  of  the  Apostleship. 

He  adds,  "  and  all  the  brethren  which  are  with  me." 
For  it  was  Paul's  custom  to  associate  with  himself  in 
these  official  letters  his  fellow-labourers,  present  at  the 
time.  From  this  expression  we  gather  that  he  was 
attended  just  now  by  a  considerable  band  of  companions, 
such  as  we  find  enumerated  in  Acts  xx.  2 — 6,  attending 
him  on  his  journey  from  Ephesus  to  Corinth  during 
the  third  missionary  tour.  This  circumstance  has 
some    bearing    on     the    date    of    the    letter.       Bishop 


i6  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

Lightfoot  (in  his  Commentary)  shows  reason  for 
beheving  that  it  was  written,  not  from  Ephesus  as 
commonly  supposed,  but  at  a  somewhat  later  time, 
from  Macedonia.  It  is  connected  by  numerous  and 
close  links  of  internal  association  with  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  which  on  this  supposition  speedily 
followed,  and  with  2  Corinthians,  immediately  preced- 
ing it.  And  the  allusion  of  the  text,  though  of  no 
decisive  weight  taken  by  itself,  goes  to  support  this 
reasoning.  Upon  this  hypothesis,  our  Epistle  was 
composed  in  Macedonia,  during  the  autumn  of  57 
(or  possibly,  58)  a.d.  The  emotion  which  surcharges 
2  Corinthians  runs  over  into  Galatians  :  while  the 
theology  which  labours  for  expression  in  Galatians 
finds  ampler  and  calmer  development  in  Romans. 

II.  Of  the  readers^  ''  the  churches  of  Galatia,"  it  is 
not  necessary  to  say  much  at  present.  The  character 
of  the  Galatians,  and  the  condition  of  their  Churches, 
will  speak  for  themselves  as  we  proceed.  Galatian  is 
equivalent  to  Gaul,  or  Kelt.  This  people  was  a  detached 
fragment  of  the  great  Western- European  race,  which 
forms  the  basis  of  our  own  Irish  and  West-British 
populations,  as  well  as  of  the  French  nationality. 
They  had  conquered  for  themselves  a  home  in  the 
north  of  Asia  Minor  during  the  Gaulish  invasion  that 
poured  over  South-eastern  Europe  and  into  the  Asiatic 
peninsula  some  three  and  a  half  centuries  before. 
Here  the  Gallic  intruders  stubbornly  held  their  ground  ; 
and  only  succumbed  to  the  irresistible  power  of  Rome. 
Defeated  by  the  Consul  Manlius  in  189  b.c,  the 
Galatians  retained  their  autonomy,  under  the  rule  of 
native  princes,  until  in  the  year  25  B.C.,  on  the  death 
of  Amyntas,  the  country  was  made  a  province  of  the 
Empire.      The     people    maintained    their    distinctivip 


i.  1. 2.]  THE  ADDRESS.  17 

character  and  speech  despite  these  changes.  At  the 
same  time  they  readily  acquired  Greek  culture,  and 
were  by  no  means  barbarians ;  indeed  they  were  noted 
for  their  intelligence.  In  religion  they  seem  to  have 
largely  imbibed  the  Phrygian  idolatry  of  the  earlier 
inhabitants. 

The  Roman  Government  had  annexed  to  Galatia 
certain  districts  lying  to  the  south,  in  which  were 
situated  most  of  the  cities  visited  by  Paul  and  Barnabas 
in  their  first  missionary  tour.  This  has  led  some 
scholars  to  surmise  that  Paul's  *'Galatians"  were  really 
Pisidians  and  Lycaonians,  the  people  of  Derbe,  Lystra, 
and  Pisidian  Antioch.  But  this  is  improbable.  The 
inhabitants  of  these  regions  were  never  called  Galatians 
in  common  speech ;  and  Luke  distinguishes  "  the 
Galatic  country  "  quite  clearly  from  its  southern  border- 
lands. Besides,  the  Epistle  contains  no  allusions,  such 
as  we  should  expect  in  the  case  supposed,  to  the 
Apostle's  earlier  and  memorable  associations  with  these 
cities  of  the  South.  Elsewhere  he  mentions  them  by 
name  (2  Tim.  iii.  ii);  and  why  not  here,  if  he  were 
addressing  this  circle  of  Churches  ? 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  relates  nothing  of  Paul's 
sojourn  in  Galatia,  beyond  the  fact  that  he  twice 
'^passed  through  the  Galatic  country"  (Acts  xvi.  6; 
Aviii.  23),  on  the  first  occasion  during  the  second 
missionary  journey,  in  travelling  north  and  then  west- 
wards from  Pisidia ;  the  second  time,  on  his  way  from 
Antioch  to  Ephesus,  in  the  course  of  the  third  tour. 
Galatia  lay  outside  the  main  line  of  Paul's  evangelistic 
career,  as  the  historian  of  the  Acts  describes  it,  outside 
the  Apostle's  own  design,  as  it  would  appear  from 
ch.  iv.  13.  In  the  first  instance  Galatia  follows  (in 
the  order  of  the  Acts),  in  the  second  precedes  Phrygia, 

2 


i8  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


a  change  which  seems  to  indicate  some  new  importance 
accruing  to  this  region  :  the  further  clause  in  Acts 
xviii.  23,  "strengthening  all  the  disciples,"  shows  that 
the  writer  was  aware  that  by  this  time  a  number  of 
Christian  societies  were  in  existence  in  this  neighbour- 
hood. 

No  city'xs  mentioned  in  the  address,  but  \ki^  country  oi 
Galatia  only — the  single  example  of  the  kind  in  Paul's 
Epistles.  The  Galatians  were  countryfolk  rather  than 
townsfolk.  And  the  Church  seems  to  have  spread 
over  the  district  at  large,  without  gathering  itself  into 
any  one  centre,  such  as  the  Apostle  had  occupied  in 
other  parts  of  his  Gentile  field. 

Still  more  significant  is  the  curtness  of  this  designa- 
tion. Paul  does  not  say,  '^  To  the  Churches  of  God 
in  Galatia,"  or  "  to  the  saints  and  faithful  brethren  in 
Christ,"  as  in  other  Epistles.  He  is  in  no  mood  for 
compliments.  These  Galatians  are,  he  fears,  "remov- 
ing from  God  who  had  called  them  "  (ver.  6).  He 
stands  in  doubt  of  them.  It  is  a  question  whether  they 
are  now,  or  will  long  continue,  "  Churches  of  God  "  at 
all.  He  would  gladly  commend  them  if  he  could ;  but 
he  must  instead  begin  with  reproaches.  And  yet  we 
shall  find  that,  as  the  Apostle  proceeds,  his  sternness 
gradually  relaxes.  He  remembers  that  these  "  foolish 
Galatians"  are  his  "  children,"  once  ardently  attached 
to  him  (ch.  iv.  12 — 20).  His  heart  yearns  towards 
them ;  he  travails  over  them  in  birth  again.  Surely 
they  will  not  forsake  him,  and  renounce  the  gospel  of 
whose  blessings  they  had  enjoyed  so  rich  an  experience 
(ch.  iii.  3;  V.  10).  He  calls  them  "brethren"  once 
and  again  ;  and  with  this  kindly  word,  holding  out  the 
hand  of  forgiveness,  he  concludes  the  letter. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE  SALUTATION. 

•*  Grace  to  you  and  peace  from  God  the  Father,  and  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  gave  Himself  for  our  sins,  that  He  might  deliver  us  out  of 
this  present  evil  world,  according  to  the  will  of  our  God  and  Father  : 
to  whom  be  the  glory  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen." — Gal.  i.  3 — 5. 

THE  greetings  and  benedictions  of  the  Apostolic 
Letters  deserve  more  attention  from  us  than  they 
sometimes  receive.  We  are  apt  to  pass  over  them  as 
if  they  were  a  kind  of  pious  formality,  like  the  conven- 
tional phrases  of  our  own  epistles.  But  to  treat  them 
in  such  fashion  is  to  do  injustice  to  the  seriousness 
and  sincerity  of  Holy  Scripture.  This  salutation  of 
''Grace  and  Peace"  comes  from  Paul's  very  heart.  It 
breathes  the  essence  of  his  gospel. 

This  formula  appears  to  be  of  the  Apostle's  coining. 
Other  writers,  we  may  believe,  borrowed  it  from  him. 
Grace  represents  the  common  Greek  salutation, — joy  to 
yoUy  yaipeiv  changing  to  the  kindred  X"P^*>>  while  the 
more  religious  peace  of  the  Hebrew,  so  often  heard 
from  the  lips  of  Jesus,  remains  unaltered,  only  receiving 
from  the  New  Covenant  a  tenderer  significance.  It  is 
as  though  East  and  West,  the  old  world  and  the  new, 
met  here  and  joined  their  voices  to  bless  the  Church 
and  people  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Grace  is  the  sum  of  all  blessing  bestowed  by  God ; 


20  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


peace,  in  its  wide  Hebraic  range  of  meaning,  the  sum  of 
all  blessing  experienced  by  man.  Grace  is  the  Father's 
goodwill  and  bounty  in  Christ  to  His  undeserving 
children ;  peace^  the  rest  and  reconcilement,  the  re- 
covered health  and  gladness  of  the  child  brought  home 
to  the  Father's  house,  dwelling  in  the  light  of  his 
Father's  face.  Grace  is  the  fountain  of  redeeming  love  ; 
peace  is  the  "  river  of  life  proceeding  from  the  throne 
of  God  and  of  the  Lamb,"  that  flows  calm  and  deep 
through  each  believing  soul,  the  river  whose  ^'  streams 
make  glad  the  city  of  God." 

What  could  a  pastor  wish  better  for  his  people,  or 
friend  for  the  friend  he  loves  most,  than  this  double 
blessing  ?  Paul's  letters  are  perfumed  with  its  fra- 
grance. Open  them  where  you  will,  they  are  breathing 
out,  "  Grace  to  you  and  peace."  Paul  has  hard  things 
to  write  in  this  Epistle,  sorrowful  complaints  to  make, 
grievous  errors  to  correct ;  but  still  with  "  Grace  and 
peace "  he  begins,  and  with  ^'  Peace  and  grace "  he 
will  end  !  And  so  this  stern  and  reproachful  letter  to 
these  '*  foolish  Galatians  "  is  all  embalmed  and  folded 
up  in  grace  and  peace.  That  is  the  way  to  *'  be  angry 
and  sin  not."     So  mercy  rejoices  over  judgement. 

These  two  benedictions,  we  must  remember,  go 
together.  Peace  comes  through  grace.  The  proud 
heart  never  knows  peace;  it  will  not  yield  to  God  the 
glor}^  of  His  grace.  It  scorns  to  be  a  debtor,  even  to 
Him.  The  proud  man  stands  upon  his  rights,  upon  his 
merits.  And  he  will  have  them;  for  God  is  just.  But 
peace  is  not  amongst  them.  No  sinful  child  of  man 
deserves  that.  Is  there  wrong  between  your  soul  and 
God,  iniquity  hidden  in  the  heart  ?  Till  that  wrong  is 
confessed,  till  you  submit  to  the  Almighty  and  your 
spirit  bows    at  the  Redeemer's  cross,  what   hast  thou 


i.  3-5-]  ^'^>'-'  SALUTATION'.  Ji 

to  do  with  peace  ?  No  peace  in  this  world,  or  in  any 
world,  for  him  who  will  not  be  at  peace  with  God. 
"  When  I  kept  silence,"  so  the  ancient  confession  runs 
(Ps.  xxxii.  3 — 5),  "  my  bones  waxed  old  through  my 
moaning  all  the  day  long  " — that  is  why  many  a  man  is 
old  before  his  time  !  because  of  this  continual  inward 
chafing,  this  secret,  miserable  war  of  the  heart  against 
God.  "  Day  and  night  Thy  hand  was  heavy  upon  me ; 
my  moisture  was  turned  into  the  drought  of  summer  " — 
the  soul  withered  like  grass,  all  the  freshness  and  pure 
delight  of  life  wasted  and  perishing  under  the  steady, 
unrelenting  heat  of  the  Divine  displeasure.  "Then  I 
said  " — I  could  bear  it  no  longer — *'  I  said,  I  will  confess 
my  transgression  unto  the  Lord  ;  and  Thou  forgavest 
the  iniquity  of  my  sin."  And  then  peace  came  to  the 
weary  soul.  The  bitterness  and  hardness  of  life  were 
gone ;  the  heart  was  young  again.  The  man  was  new 
born,  a  child  of  God. 

But  while  Paul  gives  this  salutation  to  all  his 
Churches,  his  greeting  is  extended  and  qualified  here  in 
a  peculiar  manner.  The  Galatians  were  falling  away 
from  faith  in  Christ  to  Jewish  ritualism.  He  does  not 
therefore  wish  them  "  Grace  and  peace  "  in  a  general 
way,  or  as  objects  to  be  sought  from  any  quarter 
or  by  any  means  that  they  m'ght  choose ;  but  only 
''  from  God  our  Father,  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
gave  Himself  for  our  sins."  Here  is  already  a  note 
of  warning  and  a  tacit  contradiction  of  much  that  they 
were  tempted  to  believe.  It  would  have  been  a  mockery 
for  the  Apostle  to  desire  for  these  fickle  Galatians 
grace  and  peace  on  other  terms.  As  at  Corinth,  so  in 
Galatia,  he  is  "determined  to  know  nothing  save  Jesus 
Christ  and  Him  crucified."  Above  the  puerilities  of 
their  Jewish  ritual,  above  the  pettiness  of  their  wrang- 


22  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CALATIANS. 


ling  factions,  he  directs  his  readers'  gaze  once  more  to 
the  sacrifice  of  Calvary  and  the  sublime  purpose  of  God 
which  it  reveals. 

Do  we  not  need  to  be  recalled  to  the  same  sight  ? 
We  live  in  a  distracted  and  distracting  age.  Even  with- 
out positive  unbelief,  the  cross  is  too  frequently  thrust 
out  of  view  by  the  hurry  and  press  of  modern  life. 
Nay,  in  the  Church  itself  is  it  not  in  danger  of  being 
practically  set  on  one  side,  amidst  the  throng  of  com- 
peting interests  which  solicit,  and  many  of  them  justl}! 
solicit,  our  attention  ?  We  visit  Calvary  too  seldom. 
We  do  not  haunt  in  our  thoughts  the  sacred  spot,  and 
linger  on  this  theme,  as  the  old  saints  did.  We  fail  to 
attain  "  the  fellowship  of  Christ's  sufferings  ;  "  and  while 
the  cross  is  outwardly  exalted,  its  inward  meaning  is 
perhaps  but  faintly  realised.  "  Tell  us  something  new," 
they  say;  "that  story  of  the  cross,  that  evangelical 
doctrine  of  yours  we  have  heard  it  so  often,  we  know 
it  all  so  well ! "  If  men  are  saying  this,  if  the  cross 
of  Christ  is  made  of  none  effect,  its  message  staled  by 
repetition,  we  must  be  strangely  at  fault  either  in  the 
hearing  or  the  telling.  Ah,  if  we  knew  the  cross  of 
Christ,  it  would  crucify  us  ;  it  would  possess  our  being. 
Its  supremacy  can  never  be  taken  from  it.  That  cross 
is  still  the  centre  of  the  world's  hope,  the  pillar  of 
salvation.  Let  the  Church  lose  her  hold  of  it,  and  she 
loses  everything.  She  has  no  longer  any  reason  to 
exist. 

I.  So  the  Apostle's  greeting  invites  his  readers  to 
contemplate  anew  the  Divine  gift  bestowed  upon  sinful 
men.  It  invokes  blessing  upon  them  "  from  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  who  gave  Himself  for  our  sins." 

To  see  this  gift  in  its  greatness,  let  us  go  a  little 
farther  back ;  let  us  consider  who  the  Christ  is  that 


i.  3-5.]  ^'-^^  SALUTATION.  i$ 

thus  "gives  Himself."  He  is,  we  are  taught,  the 
almoner  of  all  the  Divine  bounties.  He  is  not  the 
object  alone,  but  the  depositary  and  dispenser  of  the 
Father's  good  pleasure  to  all  worlds  and  all  creatures. 
Creation  is  rooted  in  "the  Son  of  God's  love"  (Col. 
i.  15 — 18).  Universal  life  has  its  fountain  in  "the 
Only-begotten,  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father." 
The  light  that  dispelled  the  weltering  gloom  of  chaos, 
the  more  wondrous  light  that  shone  in  the  dawn  of 
human  reason,  came  from  this  "  outbeaming  of  the 
Father's  glory."  Countless  gifts  had  He,  "  the  hfe  of 
men,  the  Word  that  was  from  the  beginning,"  bestowed 
on  a  world  that  knew  Him  not.  Upon  the  chosen 
race,  the  people  whom  on  the  world's  behalf  he  formed 
for  Himself,  He  showered  His  blessings.  He  had 
given  them  promise  and  law,  prophet  and  priest  and 
king,  gifts  of  faith  and  hope,  holy  obedience  and  brave 
patience  and  deep  wisdom  and  prophetic  fire  and 
heavenly  rapture  ;  and  His  gifts  to  them  have  come 
through  them  to  us,  "  partakers  with  them  of  the  root 
and  fatness  of  the  olive  tree." 

But  now,  to  crown  all,  He  gave  Himself!  "The 
Word  became  flesh."  The  Son  of  God  planted  Him- 
self into  the  stock  of  human  life,  made  Himself  over 
to  mankind  ;  He  became  the  Son  of  man.  So  in  the 
fulness  of  time  came  the  fulness  of  blessing.  Earlier 
bestowments  were  instalments  and  prophecies  of  this  ; 
later  gifts  are  its  outcome  and  its  application.  What 
could  He  have  done  more  than  this  ?  What  could 
the  Infinite  God  do  more,  even  for  the  most  worthy, 
than  He  has  done  for  us  in  "  sending  His  Son,  the 
Only-begotten,  that  w^e  might  live  through  Him  I " 
Giving  us  Him,  surely  He  will  give  us  grace  and 
peace. 

1 


24  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


And  if  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  "  gave  Himself,"  is 
not  that  sufiicient?  What  could  Jewish  ritual  and  cir- 
cumcision add  to  this  "  fulness  of  the  Godhead  ? " 
Why  hunt  after  the  shadows,  when  one  has  the 
substance  ?  Such  were  the  questions  which  the 
Apostle  has  to  ask  his  Judaizing  readers.  And  what, 
pray,  do  we  want  with  modern  Ritualism,  and  its 
scenic  apparatus,  and  its  priestly  offices  ?  Are  these 
things  designed  to  eke  out  the  insufficiency  of  Christ  ? 
Will  they  recommend  Him  better  than  His  own  gospel 
and  the  pure  influence  of  His  Spirit  avail  to  do  in  these 
latter  days  ?  Or  has  modern  thought,  to  be  sure, 
and  the  progress  of  the  19th  century  carried  us  be- 
yond Jesus  Christ,  and  created  spiritual  wants  for 
which  He  has  no  supply  ?  Paul  at  least  had  no 
anticipation  of  this  failure.  All  the  need  of  hungry 
human  hearts  and  searching  minds  and  sorrowing 
spirits,  to  the  world's  latest  ages,  the  God  of  Paul,  the 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is  able  to  supply  in 
Him.  "  We  are  complete  in  Him," — if  we  but  knew  our 
completeness.  The  most  advanced  thinkers  of  the  age 
will  still  find  Jesus  Christ  in  advance  of  them.  Those 
who  draw  the  most  largely  from  His  fulness,  leave  its 
depths  unsounded.  There  are  resources  stored  for  the 
times  to  come  in  the  revelation  of  Christ,  which  our  age 
is  too  slight,  too  hasty  of  thought,  to  comprehend.  We 
are  straitened  in  ourselves ;  never  in  Him. 

From  this  supreme  gift  we  can  argue  down  to  the 
humblest  necessities,  the  commonest  trials  of  our  daily 
lot.  It  adapts  itself  to  the  small  anxieties  of  a  strug- 
gling household,  equally  with  the  largest  demands  of 
our  exacting  age.  "  Thou  hast  given  us  Thy  Son," 
says  some  one,  "  and  wilt  1  hou  not  give  us  bread  ?" 
We  have  a  generous  Lord.     His  only  complaint  is  that 


i.  3-S.]  THE  SALUTATION.  25 

we  do  not  ask  enough.  "  Ye  are  My  friends/'  He  says  : 
"  I  have  given  My  life  for  you.  Ask  what  ye  will,  and 
it  shall  be  done  unto  you."  Giving  us  Himself,  He 
has  given  us  all  things.  Abraham  and  Moses,  David 
and  Isaiah,  "  Paul  and  Apollos  and  Cephas — yea  the 
world  itself,  life  and  death,  things  present  and  to  come — 
all  are  ours ;  and  we  are  Christ's  and  Christ  is  God's  " 
(i  Cor.  iii.  22,  23).  Such  is  the  chain  of  blessing  that 
hangs  on  this  single  gift. 

Great  as  the  gift  is,  it  is  not  greater  than  our  need. 
Wanting  a  Divine  Son  of  man,  human  life  remains  a 
bafQed  aspiration,  a  pathway  leading  to  no  goal.  Lack- 
ing Him,  the  race  is  incomplete,  a  body  without  its 
head,  a  flock  that  has  no  master.  By  the  coming  of 
Christ  in  the  flesh  human  life  finds  its  ideal  realized ; 
its  haunting  dream  of  a  Divine  helper  and  leader  in  the 
midst  of  men,  of  a  spiritual  and  immortal  perfection 
brought  within  its  reach,  has  attained  fulfilment.  *'  God 
hath  raised  up  a  horn  of  salvation  for  us  in  the  house 
of  His  servant  David ;  as  He  spake  by  the  mouth  of 
His  holy  prophets,  which  have  been  since  the  world 
began."  Jacob's  vision  has  come  true.  There  is  the 
golden  ladder,  with  its  foot  resting  on  the  cold,  stony 
earth,  and  its  top  on  heaven's  starry  platform,  with  its 
angels  ascending  and  descending  through  the  darkness  ; 
and  you  may  climb  its  steps,  high  as  you  will  I  So 
humanity  receives  its  crown  of  life.  Heaven  and  earth 
are  linked,  God  and  man  reunited  in  the  person  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

But  Paul  will  not  suffer  us  to  linger  at  Bethlehem. 
He  hastens  on  to  Calvary.  The  Atonement,  not  the 
Incarnation,  is  in  his  view  the  centre  of  Christianity. 
To  the  cross  of  Jesus,  rather  than  to  His  cradle,  he 
attaches  our  salvation.     "Jesus  Christ  gave  Himself" — 


26  THE  EPISTLE    TO    THE   GALATIANS. 

what  for,  and  in  what  way?  What  was  the  errand 
that  brought  Him  here,  in  such  a  guise,  and  at  such  a 
time  ?  Was  it  to  meet  our  need^  to  fulfil  our  human 
aspirations,  to  crown  the  moral  edifice,  to  lead  the  race 
onward  to  the  goal  of  its  development  ?  Yes — ultim- 
ately, and  in  the  final  issue,  for  "  as  many  as  receive 
Him  ";  it  was  to  "  present  every  man  perfect  in  Christ." 
But  that  was  not  the  primary  object  of  His  coming,  of 
such  a  coming.  Happy  for  us  indeed,  and  for  Him,  if 
it  could  have  been  so.  To  come  to  a  world  waiting 
for  Him,  hearkening  for  the  cry,  *'  Behold  thy  God,  O 
Israel,"  would  have  teen  a  pleasant  and  a  fitting  thing. 
But  to  find  Himself  rejected  by  His  own,  to  be  spit 
upon,  to  hear  the  multitude  shout,  ^'  Away  with  Him  I " 
was  this  the  welcome  that  he  looked  for  ?  Yea  surely, 
nothing  else  but  this.  For  He  gave  Himself  ybr  o?/r 
sins.  He  came  to  a  w^orld  steeped  in  wickedness, 
seething  with  rebellion  against  God,  hating  Him  be- 
cause it  hated  the  Father  that  sent  Him,  sure  to  say 
as  soon  as  it  saw  Him,  *'  We  will  not  have  this  man 
to  reign  over  us."  Not  therefore  by  way  of  incarna- 
tion and  revelation  alone,  as  it  might  have  been  for  an 
innocent  race ;  but  by  way  of  sacrifice,  as  a  victim  on 
the  altar  of  expiation,  ^' a  lamb  led  to  the  slaughter,' 
He  gave  Himself  up  for  us  all.  "To  deliver  us  from 
an  evil  world,"  says  the  Apostle ;  to  mend  a  faulty  and 
imperfect  world,  something  less  and  other  would  have 
sufficed. 

Extreme  diseases  call  for  extreme  remedies.  The 
case  with  which  our  good  Physician  had  to  deal  was 
a  desperate  one.  The  world  was  sick  at  heart ;  its 
moral  nature  rotting  to  the  core.  Human  life  was 
shattered  to  its  foundation.  If  it  was  to  be  saved,  if 
the  race  was  to  escape  perdition,  the  fabric  must  be 


1.3-5. J  THE  SALUTATION.  27 

reconstructed  upon  another  basis,  on  the  ground  of  a 
new  righteousness,  outside  ourselves  and  yet  akin  to 
us,  near  enough  to  take  hold  of  us  and  grow  into  us, 
which  should  draw  to  itself  the  broken  elements  of 
human  life,  and  as  a  vital  organic  force  refashion  them, 
'^  creating  "  men  "  anew  in  Christ  Jesus  " — a  righteous- 
ness availing  before  God,  and  in  its  depth  and  width 
sufficient  to  bear  a  world's  weight.  Such  a  new  foun- 
dation Jesus  Christ  has  laid  in  His  death.  "  He  laid 
down  His  life  for  us,"  the  Shepherd  for  the  sheep,  the 
Friend  for  His  perishing  friends,  the  Physician  for 
sufferers  who  had  no  other  remedy.  It  had  come  to 
this, — either  He  must  die,  or  we  must  die  for  ever. 
Such  was  the  sentence  of  the  All-wise  Judge ;  on  that 
judgement  the  Redeemer  acted.  "  His  judgements  are 
a  great  deep  "  ;  and  in  this  sentence  there  are  depths 
of  mystery  into  which  we  tremble  to  look,  ''  secret 
things  that  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God."  But  so  it 
was.  There  was  no  way  but  this,  no  moral  possibility 
of  saving  the  world,  and  yet  saving  Him  the  accursed 
death. 

If  there  had  been,  would  not  the  Almighty  Father 
have  found  it  out  ?  would  He  not  have  "  taken  away 
the  cup  "  from  those  white,  quivering  Hps  ?  No  ;  He 
must  die.  He  must  consent  to  be  *'  made  sin,  made 
a  curse"  for  us.  He  must  humble  His  stainless  inno- 
cence, humble  His  glorious  Godhead  down  to  the  dust 
of  death.  He  must  die,  at  the  hands  of  the  men  He 
created  and  loved,  with  the  horror  of  the  world's  sin 
fastened  on  Him  ;  die  under  a  blackened  heaven,  under 
the  averting  of  the  Father's  face.  And  He  did  it.  He 
said,  ^'  Father,  Thy  will  be  done.  Smite  the  Shepherd  ; 
but  let  the  sheep  escape."  So  He  "gave  Himself  for 
our  sins." 


a8  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


Ah,  it  was  no  easy  march,  no  holiday  pageant,  the 
coming  of  the  Son  of  God  into  this  world  of  ours.  He 
"came  to  save  sinners"  Not  to  help  good  men — this 
were  a  grateful  task  ;  but  to  redeem  bad  men — the 
hardest  work  in  God's  universe.  It  tasked  the  strength 
and  the  devotion  of  the  Son  of  God.  Witness  Geth- 
semane.  And  it  will  cost  His  Church  something,  more 
haply  than  we  dream  of  now,  if  the  work  of  the 
Redeemer  is  to  be  made  effectual,  and  "  the  travail  of 
His  soul  satisfied." 

In  pity  and  in  sorrow  was  that  gift  bestowed;  in 
deep  humility  and  sorrow  must  it  be  accepted.  It  is 
a  very  humbling  thing  to  "  receive  the  atonement,"  to 
be  made  righteous  on  such  terms  as  these.  A  man 
who  has  done  well,  can  with  satisfaction  accept  the 
help  given  him  to  do  better.  But  to  know  that  one  has 
done  very  ill,  to  stand  in  the  sight  of  God  and  truth 
condemned,  marked  with  the  disgrace  that  the  cruci- 
fixion of  the  Son  of  God  has  branded  on  our  human 
nature,  with  every  stain  of  sin  in  ourselves  revealed  in 
the  light  of  His  sacrifice,  is  a  sore  abasement.  When 
one  has  been  compelled  to  cry  out,  "Lord,  save;  or 
I  perish ! "  he  has  not  much  left  to  plume  himself 
upon.  There  was  Saul  himself,  a  perfect  moralist, 
"blameless  in  the  righteousness  of  the  law."  Yet  he 
must  confess,  "  How  to  perform  that  which  is  good  I 
find  not.  In  me,  that  is  in  my  flesh,  dwelleth  no  good 
thing.  Wretch  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me  ?  " 
Was  not  this  mortifying  to  the  proud  young  Pharisee, 
the  man  of  strict  conscience  and  high-souled  moral 
endeavour?  It  was  like  death.  And  whoever  has 
with  sincerity  made  the  same  attempt  to  attain  in  the 
strength  of  his  will  to  a  true  virtue,  has  tasted  of  this 
bitterness. 


i.  3-S.]  THE  SALUTATION.  29 

This  however  is  what  many  cannot  understand. 
The  proud  heart  says,  "  No ;  I  will  not  stoop  to  that. 
I  have  my  faults,  my  defects  and  errors,  not  a  few. 
But  as  for  what  you  call  sin^  as  for  guilt  and  inborn 
depravity,  I  am  not  going  to  tax  myself  with  anything 
of  the  kind.  Leave  me  a  little  self-respect."  So  with 
the  whole  herd  of  the  self-complacent,  half-religious 
Laodiceans.  Once  a  week  they  confess  themselves 
''  miserable  sinners,"  but  their  sins  against  God  never 
yet  cost  them  one  half  hour  of  misery.  And  Paul's 
^'  gospel  is  hid  to  them."  If  they  read  this  Epistle,  they 
cannot  tell  what  it  is  all  about ;  why  Paul  makes  so 
much  ado,  why  these  thunderings  of  judgement,  these 
cries  of  indignation,  these  beseechings  and  protestings 
and  redoubled  arguments, — all  because  a  parcel  of 
foolish  Galatians  wanted  to  play  at  being  Jews  !  They 
are  inclined  to  think  with  Festus,  that  this  good  Paul 
was  a  little  beside  himself.  Alas  1  to  such  men,  content 
with  the  world's  good  opinion  and  their  own,  the  death 
of  Christ  is  made  of  none  effect.  Its  moral  grandeur, 
its  infinite  pathos,  is  lost  upon  them.  They  pay  it  a 
conventional  respect,  but  as  for  believing  in  it,  as  for 
making  it  their  own,  and  dying  with  Christ  to  live  in 
Him — they  have  no  idea  what  it  means.  That,  they 
will  tell  you,  is  "  mysticism,"  and  they  are  practical 
men  of  the  world.  They  have  never  gone  out  of  them- 
selves, never  discovered  their  moral  insufficiency. 
These  are  they  of  whom  Jesus  said,  "  The  publicans 
and  the  harlots  go  into  the  kingdom  of  God  before 
you."  It  is  our  human  independence,  our  moral  self- 
conceit,  that  robs  us  of  the  Divine  bounty.  How 
should  God  give  His  righteousness  to  men  so  well 
furnished  with  their  own?  '"Blessed"  then  ''are  the 
poor  in  spirit "  ;  blessed  are  the  broken  in  heart — poor 


30  THE  EPiyi'LE   7  0   THE   GALATIANS. 

enough,  broken  enough,  bankrupt  enough  to  stoop  to 
a  Saviour  ^'  who  gave  Himself  for  our  sins." 

II.  Sinful  men  have  made  an  evil  world.  The  world, 
as  Paul  knew  it,  was  evil  indeed.  "  The  existing  evil 
age,"  he  says,  the  world  as  it  then  was,  in  contrast  with 
the  glory  of  the  perfected  Messianic  kingdom. 

This  was  a  leading  distinction  of  the  rabbinical 
schools  ;  and  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  adopt  it 
with  the  necessary  modification,  that  "the  coming  age," 
in  their  view,  commences  with  the  Parousia^  the  full 
advent  of  the  Messiah  King.*  The  period  that  inter- 
venes since  His  first  appearing  is  transitional,  be- 
longing to  both  eras.  It  is  the  conclusion  of  "  this 
world,"  t  to  which  it  appertains  in  its  outward  and 
material  relations ;  %  but  under  the  perishing  form  of 
the  present  there  lies  hidden  for  the  Christian  believer 
the  seed  of  immortality,  "  the  earnest "  of  his  future 
and  complete  inheritance.  §  Hence  the  different  and 
seemingly  contradictory  ways  in  which  Scripture  speaks 
of  the  world  that  now  is. 

To  Paul  at  this  time  the  world  wore  its  darkest 
aspect.  There  is  a  touching  emphasis  in  the  order  of 
this  clause.  *'  The  present  world,  evil  as  it  is : "  the 
words  are  a  sigh  for  deliverance.  The  Epistles  to 
Corinth  show  us  how  the  world  just  now  was  using  the 
Apostle.  The  wonder  is  that  one  man  could  bear  so 
much.  "  We  are  m.ade  as  the  filth  of  the  world,"  he 
says,  •'  the  offscouring  of  all  things."  ||  So  the  world 
treated  its  greatest  living  benefactor.     And  as  for  his 

*  2  Thess.  i.  5 — 7  ;  2  Tim.  iv.  i8  ;  Heb.  x.  I2,  13  ;  i  Pet.  v.  10. 

t  I  Cor.  X.  1 1  ;  Heb.  ix.  26. 

X  I  Cor.  vii.  31  ;  I  John  ii.  17. 

§  Rom.  viii.  18  ;  Eph.  i.  13,  14. 

y  1  Cor.  iv.  9—13  ;  xv.  30,  32  ;  2  Cor.  vi.  4,  10;  xi.  16,  33. 


i.  3-5-]  THE  SALUTATIOM.  %\ 

Master — "  the  princes  of  this  world  crucified  the  Lord 
of  glory."  Yes,  it  was  a  bad  old  world,  that  in  which 
Paul  and  the  Galatians  lived — false,  licentious,  cruel. 
And  that  "evil  world"  still  exists. 

True,  the  world,  as  we  know  it,  is  vastly  better  than 
that  of  Paul's  day.  Not  in  vain  have  Apostles  taught, 
and  martyrs  bled,  and  the  Church  of  Christ  witnessed 
and  toiled  through  so  many  ages.  "  Other  men  have 
laboured ;  we  enter  into  their  labours."  An  English 
home  of  to-day  is  the  flower  of  the  centuries.  To 
those  cradled  in  its  pure  affections,  endowed  with 
health  and  honourable  work  and  refined  tastes,  the 
world  must  be,  and  was  meant  to  be,  in  many  aspects 
a  bright  and  pleasant  world.  Surely  the  most  sorrow- 
ful have  known  days  in  which  the  sky  was  all  sunshine 
and  the  very  air  alive  with  joy,  when  the  world  looked 
as  when  it  came  forth  fresh  from  its  Creator's  hand, 
"  and  behold,  it  was  very  good."  There  is  nothing  in 
the  Bible,  nothing  in  the  spirit  of  true  religion  to  damp 
the  pure  joy  of  such  days  as  these.  But  there  are 
"  the  days  of  darkness  ; "  and  they  are  many.  The 
Serpent  has  crept  into  our  Paradise.  Death  breathes 
on  it  his  fatal  blast. 

And  when  we  look  outside  the  sheltered  circles  of 
home-life  and  Christian    brotherhood,   what  a  sea   of 
misery  spreads  around   us.     How  limited  and   partial 
is  the  influence  of  religion.     What  a  mass  of  unbelief 
and  godlessness  surges  up  to  the  doors  of  our  sanc- 
tuaries.    What  appalling  depths   of  iniquity  exist  in 
modern    society,    under    the    brilliant    surface    of  our 
material  civilization.     And  however  far  the  dominance 
of  sin  in  human  society  may  be  broken — as,  please  God, 
it  shall  be  broken,  still  evil  is  likely  to  remain  in  many 
tempting  and  perilous  forms  until  the  world  is  burnt  to 


32  THE  KriSTLE   TO   TUE  GALATIANS. 

ashts  in  the  fires  of  the  Last  Judgement.  Is  it  not  an 
evil  world,  where  every  morning  newspaper  serves  up 
to  us  its  miserable  tale  of  disaster  and  of  crime,  where 
the  Almighty's  name  is  "  all  the  day  blasphemed,"  and 
every  night  drunkenness  holds  its  horrid  revels  and 
the  daughters  of  shame  walk  the  city  streets,  where 
great  Christian  empires  tax  the  poor  man's  bread  and 
make  his  life  bitter  to  maintain  their  huge  standing 
armies  and  their  cruel  engines  of  war,  and  where,  in 
this  happy  England  and  its  cities  teeming  with  wealth, 
there  are  thousands  of  patient,  honest  working  women, 
whose  life  under  the  fierce  stress  of  competition  is  a 
veritable  slavery,  a  squalid,  dreary  struggle  just  to  keep 
hunger  from  the  door  ?  Ay,  it  is  a  world  so  evil  that 
no  good  and  right-thinking  man  who  knows  it,  would 
care  to  live  in  it  for  a  single  day,  but  for  the  hope  of 
helping  to  make  it  better. 

Now  it  was  the  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  for 
those  who  believe  in  Him  this  world's  evil  should  be 
brought  absolutely  to  an  end.  He  promises  a  full 
deliverance  from  all  that  tempts  and  afflicts  us  here. 
With  sin,  the  root  of  evil,  removed,  its  bitter  fruits  at 
last  will  disappear.  We  shall  rise  to  the  life  immortal. 
We  shall  attain  our  perfect  consummation  and  bliss 
both  in  body  and  soul.  Kept  from  the  evil  of  the 
world  while  they  remain  in  it,  enabled  by  His  grace  to 
witness  and  contend  against  it,  Christ's  servants  shall 
then  be  lifted  clean  out  for  it  of  ever.  "  Father,  I 
will,"  prayed  Jesus,  ^^  that  they  also  whom  Thou  hast 
given  Me,  may  be  with  Me  where  I  am."  To  that 
final  salvation,  accomplished  in  the  redemption  of  our 
body  and  the  setting  up  of  Christ's  heavenly  kingdom, 
the  Apostle's  words  look  forward  :  *^  that  He  might 
deliver  us  out  of  this  present  evil  world."     This   was 


i.  3-5-]  THE  SALUTATION.  33 

the  splendid  hope  which  Paul  offered  to  the  dying  and 
despairing  world  of  his  day.  The  Galatians  were 
persuaded  of  it  and  embraced  it ;  he  entreats  them  not 
to  let  it  go. 

The  self-sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  the  deHverance  it 
brings,  are  both,  the  Apostle  concludes,  "  according  to 
the  will  of  God,  even  our  Father."  The  wisdom  and 
might  of  the  Eternal  are  pledged  to  the  work  of  human 
redemption.  The  cross  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  mani- 
festo of  Infinite  Love.  Let  him  therefore  who  rejects 
it,  know  against  Whom  he  is  contending.  Let  him 
who  perverts  and  falsifies  it,  know  with  what  he  is 
trifling.  He  who  receives  and  obeys  it,  may  rest 
assured  that  all  things  are  working  for  his  good.  For 
all  things  are  in  the  hands  of  our  God  and  Father; 
"  to  Whom,"  let  us  say  with  Paul,  *^  be  glory  for  ever. 
Amen." 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    ANATHEMA. 

*'  I  marvel  that  ye  are  so  quickly  removing  from  him  that  called  you 
in  the  grace  of  Christ  unto  a  different  gospel ;  vs^hich  is  not  another 
gospel :  only  there  are  some  that  trouble  you,  and  would  pervert  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  But  though  we,  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  should 
preach  unto  you  any  gospel  other  than  that  which  we  preached  unto 
you,  let  him  be  anathema.  As  we  have  said  before,  so  say  I  now  again, 
If  any  man  preacheth  unto  you  any  gospel  other  than  that  which  ye 
received,  let  him  be  anathema.  For  am  I  now  persuading  men,  or 
God  ?  or  am  I  seeking  to  please  men  ?  if  I  were  still  pleasing  men,  I 
should  not  be  a  servant  of  Christ." — Gal.  i.  6 — lo. 

AFTER  the  Salutation  in  Paul's  Epistles  comes  the 
Thanksgiving.  Evxc^p^'orS)  or  EvXoy7}T6<i — these 
are  the  words  we  expect  first  to  meet.  Even  in  writing 
to  Corinth,  where  there  was  so  much  to  censure  and 
deplore,  he  begins,  "  I  give  thanks  to  my  God  always 
for  you."  This  letter  deviates  from  the  Apostle's 
devout  and  happy  usage.  Not  ^'  I  give  thanks,"  but 
"  I  marvel ; "  not  blessing,  but  anathema  is  coming 
from  his  lips  :  a  surprise  that  jars  all  the  more  upon 
one's  ears,  because  it  follows  on  the  sublime  doxology 
of  the  preceding  verse.  *'  I  marvel  to  see  you  so 
quickly  falling  away  to  another  gospel.  .  .  .  But  if  any 
one  preach  unto  you  any  gospel  other  than  that  ye 
received — ay,  though  it  were  ourselves,  or  an  angel 
from  heaven — I  have  said  once,  and  I  say  again,  Let 
HIM  BE  Anathema." 


i.  6.IO.J  THE  ANATHEMA,  35 

These  words  were  well  calculated  to  startle  the 
Galatians  out  of  their  levity.  They  are  like  a  lightning- 
flash  which  shows  one  to  be  standing  on  the  edge  of 
a  precipice.  We  see  at  once  the  infinite  seriousness 
of  the  Judaic  controversy,  the  profound  gulf  that  lies 
between  Paul  and  his  opposers.  He  is  for  open  war. 
He  is  in  haste  to  fling  his  gage  of  defiance  against 
these  enemies  of  the  cross.  With  all  his  tact  and 
management,  his  readiness  to  consult  the  susceptibilities 
and  accommodate  the  scruples  of  sincere  consciences, 
the  Apostle  can  find  no  room  for  conciliation  here.  He 
knows  the  sort  of  men  he  has  to  deal  with.  He  per- 
ceives that  the  whole  truth  of  the  Gospel  is  at  stake. 
Not  circumstantials,  but  essentials ;  not  his  personal 
authority,  but  the  honour  of  Christ,  the  doctrine  of  the 
cross,  is  involved  in  this  defection.  He  must  speak 
plainly ;  he  must  act  strongly,  and  at  once ;  or  the 
cause  of  the  Gospel  is  lost.  "If  I  continued  any  longer 
to  please  men,"  he  says,  ^^  I  should  not  be  a  servant 
of  Christ."  To  stand  on  terms  with  such  opponents, 
to  palter  with  this  **  other  gospel,"  would  be  treason 
against  Him.  There  is  but  one  tribunal  at  which  this 
quarrel  can  be  decided.  To  Him  "  who  had  called  " 
the  Galatian  believers  *'  in  Christ's  grace,"  who  by  the 
same  grace  had  called  the  Apostle  to  His  service  and 
given  him  the  message  he  had  preached  to  them — to 
God  he  appeals.  In  His  name,  and  by  the  authority 
conferred  upon  him  and  for  wiiich  he  must  give  account, 
he  pronounces  these  troublers  "anathema."  They  are 
enemies  of  Christ,  by  their  treachery  excluded  from 
His  kingdom. 

However  unwelcome,  however  severe  the  course  tht 
Apostle  takes,  he  has  no  alternative.  "  For  now,"  he 
cries,   "is  it  men  that  I  persuade,  or  God?"     He  must 


36  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


do  his  duty,  let  who  will  condemn.  Paul  was  ready 
to  go  all  lengths  in  pleasing  men  in  consistence  with 
loyalty  to  Christ,  where  he  could  do  it  "for  their  good, 
unto  edification."  But  if  their  approval  clashed  with 
God's,  then  it  became  "  a  very  small  thing  :  "  *  he  did 
not  heed  it  one  jot.  Such  is  the  temper  of  mind  which 
the  Epistles  to  Corinth  disclose  in  Paul  at  this  juncture. 
In  the  same  spirit  he  indites  these  trenchant  and  dis- 
pleasing words. 

With  a  heavy  heart  Paul  has  taken  up  his  pen.  If 
we  judge  rightly  of  the  date  of  this  letter,  he  had  just 
passed  through  the  darkest  hour  of  his  experience, 
when  not  his  life  alone,  but  the  fate  of  his  Gentile 
mission  hung  in  the  balance.  His  expulsion  from 
Ephesus,  coming  at  the  same  time  as  the  Corinthian 
revolt,  and  followed  by  a  prostrating  attack  of  sickness, 
had  shaken  his  soul  to  its  depths.  Never  had  his 
heart  been  so  torn  with  anxiety,  never  had  he  felt 
himself  so  beaten  down  and  discomfited,  as  on  that 
melancholy  journey  from  Ephesus  to  Macedonia.  \ 
"  Out  of  anguish  of  heart  and  with  many  tears "  and 
after-relentings  (2  Cor.  ii.  4 ;  vii.  8)  he  wrote  his  First 
letter  to  Corinth.  And  this  Epistle  is  even  more  severe. 
There  runs  through  it  a  peculiar  mental  tension,  an 
exaltation  of  feeling  such  as  prolonged  and  deep  suffer- 
ing leaves  behind  in  a  nature  like  Paul's.  "The  marks 
of  Jesus "  (ch.  vi.  17)  are  visible,  impressed  on  his 
spirit  no  less  than  on  his  body.  The  Apostle's  heart 
is  full  to  overflowing.  Its  warm  glow  is  felt  under  the 
calmer  course  of  narrative  and  argument :  while  at  the 
beginning  and  end  of  the  Epistle  it  breaks  forth  in 
language   of  burning  indignation   and  melting  pathos. 

*  I  Cor.  iv.  3,  4  ;  2  Cor.  v.  9 — 12  ;  xii.  19. 

f  2  Cor.  i.  8 — 10;  ii.  12,  13  ;  iv.  8 — ii  ;  vii.  5 — 7. 


i.6-io.]  THE  ANATHEMA. 


Before  advancing  a  single  step,  before  entering  on  any 
sort  of  explanation  or  discussion,  his  grief  at  the  fickle- 
ness of  his  Galatian  children  and  his  anger  against 
their  seducers  must  find  expression. 

These  sentences  demand,  before  we  proceed  further, 
a  few  words  of  exegetical  definition.  For  the  reference 
of  "  so  quickly "  it  is  needless  to  go  beyond  the  verb 
it  qualifies.  The  Apostle  cannot  surely  mean,  "  so 
soon  falling  away  (after  your  conversion)."  For  the 
Galatian  Churches  had  been  founded  five,  if  not  seven, 
years  before  this  time ;  and  the  backsliding  of  recent 
converts  is  less,  and  not  more,  surprising  than  of 
established  believers.  What  astonishes  Paul  is  the 
suddenness  of  this  movement,  the  facility  with  which 
the  Galatians  yielded  to  the  Judaizing  "  persuasion," 
the  rapid  spread  of  this  new  leaven.  As  to  the  double 
"  other  "  (erepov,  different,  R. V. — aXko)  of  vv.  6  and  7, 
and  the  connection  of  the  idiomatic  "  only "  {el  fi)j, 
except), — we  regard  the  second  other  as  an  abrupt  cor- 
rection of  the  first ;  while  the  only  clause,  extending  to 
the  end  of  ver.  7,  mediates  between  the  two,  qualifying 
the  statement  "  There  is  no  other  gospel,"  by  showing 
in  what  sense  the  writer  at  first  had  spoken  of 
"  another."  ''  Ye  are  falling  away,"  says  he,  "  to 
another  sort  of  gospel — which  is  not  another,  except 
that  there  are  certain  that  trouble  you  and  would  fain 
pervert  the  gospel  of  Christ."  The  word  gospel  is 
therefore  in  the  first  instance  applied  ironically.  Paul 
yields  the  sacred  title  up  to  his  opponents,  only  to 
snatch  it  out  of  their  false  hands.  **  Another  gospel  ! 
there  is  only  one ;  although  there  are  men  that  falsify 
it,  and  seek  to  foist  something  else  upon  you  in  its 
name."  Seven  times  in  this  context  (vv.  6 — ll)  does 
the  Apostle   reiterate,   in   noun  or  verb,  this  precious 


38  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 

word,  as  though  he  could  not  let  it  go.  A  strange  sort 
of  "  good  news  "  for  the  Galatians,  that  they  must  be 
circumcised  forsooth,  and  observe  the  Jewish  Kalendar! 
(ch.  V.  2,  3;  vi,  I2  ;  iv.  9,  10.) 

I.  In  Paul's  view,  there  is  but  one  gospel  for  man- 
kind. The  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  bears  a  fixed,  inviolable 
character. 

On  this  position  the  whole  teaching  of  Paul  rests, — 
and  with  it,  may  we  not  add,  Christianity  itself? 
However  variously  we  may  formulate  the  essentials  of 
a  Christian  man's  faith,  we  are  generally  agreed  that 
there  are  such  essentials,  and  that  they  are  found  in 
Paul's  gospel  to  the  Gentiles.  With  him  the  good  tidings 
about  Christ  constituted  a  very  definite  and,  as  we 
should  say,  dogmatic  body  of  truth.  In  whatever 
degree  his  gospel  has  been  confused  and  overlaid  by 
later  teachings,  to  his  own  mind  its  terms  were  perfectly 
clear,  and  its  authority  incontestable.  With  all  its 
breadth,  there  is  nothing  nebulous,  nothing  limp  or 
hesitating  about  the  theology  of  Paul.  In  its  main 
doctrines  it  is  fixed  and  hard  as  adamant ;  and  at  the 
challenge  of  this  Judaistic  perversion  it  rings  out  an 
instant  and  peremptory  denial.  It  was  the  ark  of  God 
on  which  the  Jewish  troublers  laid  their  unholy  hands. 
"Christ's  grace"  is  lodged  in  it.  God's  call  to  mankind 
was  conveyed  by  these  ^*  good  tidings."  The  Churches 
which  the  Apostle  had  planted  were  "  God's  husbandry, 
God's  building ; "  and  woe  to  the  man  who  tampered 
with  the  work,  or  sought  to  lay  another  foundation 
than  that  which  had  been  laid  (l  Cor.  iii.  5 — n).  To 
distort  or  mutilate  "  the  word  of  the  truth  of  the 
gospel,"  to  make  it  mean  now  one  thing  and  now 
another,  to  disturb  the  faith  of  half-instructed  Chris- 
tians  by  captious  reasonings    and  self-interested  per- 


i.6-io.l  THE  ANATHEMA.  39 


versions,  was  a  capital  offence,  a  sin  against  God  and 
a  crime  against  humanity.  Paul  possesses  in  his 
gospel  truth  of  unspeakable  value  to  mankind,  the 
supreme  revelation  of  God's  mercy  to  the  world.  And 
he  is  prepared  to  launch  his  anathema  against  every 
wilful  impugner,  no  matter  what  his  pretensions,  or 
the  quarter  from  which  he  comes. 

"  Well,"  it  may  be  said,  "  this  is  sheer  religious 
intolerance.  Paul  is  doing  what  every  dogmatist,  every 
ecclesiastical  bigot  has  done  in  his  turn.  His  beliefs 
are,  to  be  sure,  the  truth;  and  accordingly  he  unchurches 
and  anathematizes  those  who  cannot  agree  with  him. 
With  all  his  nobility  of  mind,  there  is  in  Paul  a  leaven 
of  Jewish  rancour.  He  falls  short  of  the  sweet  reason- 
ableness of  Jesus."  So  some  will  say,  and  in  saying 
claim  to  represent  the  mild  and  tolerant  spirit  of  our 
dge.  But  is  there  not  in  every  age  an  intolerance  that 
's  just  and  necessary  ?  There  is  a  logical  intolerance 
of  sophistry  and  trifling.  There  is  a  moral  intolerance 
of  impurity  and  deceit.  And  there  is  a  religious  in- 
tolerance, which  includes  both  these  and  adds  to  them 
a  holy  jealousy  for  the  honour  of  God  and  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  mankind.  It  is  mournful  indeed  to  think 
how  many  crimes  have  been  perpetrated  under  the 
cloak  of  pious  zeal.  Tantum  Religio  potiiit  suadere 
malorum.  The  corruption  of  Christianity  by  human 
pride  and  cruelty  has  furnished  copious  illustrations  of 
the  terrible  line  of  Lucretius.  But  the  perversion  of 
this  noblest  instinct  of  the  soul  does  not  take  away 
either  its  reasonableness  or  its  use.  The  quality  of 
a  passion  is  one  thing ;  the  mode  of  its  expression 
is  another.  The  hottest  fires  of  bigotry  are  cold  when 
compared  with  the  scorching  intolerance  of  Christ's 
denunciations   of  the    Pharisees.      The   anathemas^  ot' 


40  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

Jesus  and  of  Paul  are  very  different  from  those  of 
arrogant  pontiffs,  or  of  narrow  sectaries,  inflamed  with 
the  idolatry  of  their  own  opinions.  After  all,  the  zeal 
of  the  rudest  fanatic  in  religion  has  more  in  it  of  manly 
worth  and  moral  capability  than  the  languors  of  a 
blas^  scepticism,  that  sits  watching  with  amused  con- 
tempt the  strife  of  creeds  and  the  search  of  human 
hearts  after  the  Living  God.  There  is  an  idle,  listless, 
cowardly  tolerance,  as  there  is  an  intolerance  that  is 
noble  and  just. 

The  one  gospel  has  had  many  interpreters.  Their 
voices,  it  must  be  confessed,  sound  strangely  dis- 
cordant. While  the  teachings  of  Christianity  excite 
so  intensely  a  multitude  of  different  minds,  of  ever} 
variety  of  temper  and  capacity,  contradiction  will 
inevitably  arise.  Nothing  is  easier  than  to  scoff  at 
"  the  Babel  of  religious  opinions."  Christian  truth  is 
necessarily  refracted  and  discoloured  in  passing  through 
disordered  natures  and  defective  minds.  And,  alas, 
that  Church  which  claims  to  hold  the  truth  without 
possibility  of  error  or  variation,  has  perverted  Christ's 
gospel  most  of  all. 

But  notwithstanding  all  differences,  there  exists 
a  large  and  an  increasing  measure  of  agreement 
amongst  the  great  body  of  earnest  Christians.  Slowly, 
yet  surely,  one  debate  after  another  comes  to  its  settle- 
ment. The  noise  and  publicity  with  which  discussion 
on  matters  of  faith  is  carried  on  in  an  age  of  religious 
freedom,  and  when  liberty  of  thought  has  outrun 
mental  discipline,  should  not  lead  us  to  exaggerate  the 
extent  of  our  disagreements.  In  the  midst  of  human 
controversy  and  error,  the  Spirit  of  truth  is  carrying  on 
His  work.  He  is  the  supreme  witness  of  Jesus  Christ. 
And  He  abides  with  us  for  ever.    The  newly  awakened 


i.6-io.  THE  ANATHEMA.  4I 

historical  conscience  of  our  times  is  visibly  making  for 
unity.  The  Church  is  going  back  to  the  New  Testament. 
And  the  moje  thoroughly  she  does  this,  the  more 
directly  and  truthfully  she  addresses  herself  to  the 
original  record  and  comes  face  to  face  with  Christ  and  His 
Apostles  there,  so  much  the  more  shall  we  realize  the 
oneness  and  certainty  of  "the  faith  once  delivered  to 
the  saints."  Beneath  the  many  superstructures,  faulty 
and  changing  in  their  form,  we  reach  the  one  ''  founda- 
tion of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  Himself 
being  the  chief  corner-stone."  There  we  touch  solid 
rock.  "The  unity  of  the  faith"  lies  in  "the  knowledge 
of  the  Son  of  God."  Of  Him  we  shall  learn  most  from 
those  who  knew  Him  best.  Let  us  transport  ourselves 
into  the  fellowship  of  His  first  disciples;  and  listen  to 
His  gospel  as  it  came  fresh  from  the  lips  of  Peter  and 
John  and  Paul,  and  the  Divine  Master  Himself.  Let 
us  bid  the  voices  of  the  centuries  be  silent,  that  we 
may  hear  Him. 

For  the  Galatian  readers,  as  for  Paul,  there  could 
be  but  one  gospel.  By  his  voice  the  call  of  God  had 
reached  their  hearts,  (ver.  6 ;  ch.  v.  8).  The  witness  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  and  of  Christ  in  the  supernatural 
gifts  they  had  received,  and  in  the  manifold  fruit  of  a 
regenerate  life  (ch.  iii.  2 — 5  ;  v.  22,  23),  was  evidence  to 
them  that  the  Apostle's  message  was  "  the  true  gospel 
of  the  grace  of  God."  This  they  had  gratefully 
acknowledged  at  the  time  of  his  first  visit  (ch.  iv.  15). 
The  proclamation  of  the  crucified  and  risen  Christ  had 
brought  to  them  unspeakable  blessing.  Through  it 
they  received  the  knowledge  of  God ;  they  were  made 
consciously  sons  of  God,  heirs  of  life  eternal  (ch.  iii.  26  ; 
iv.  6 — 9 ;  vi.  8).  To  entertain  any  other  gospel,  after 
this  experience  and  all  these  professions,  was  an  act  of 


43  THE  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CALATIANS. 


apostasy.  "  Ye  are  deserting  (like  runaway  soldiers), 
turning  renegades  from  God  :  "  such  is  the  language  in 
which  Paul  taxes  his  readers.  In  listening  to  the 
persuasion  of  the  Judaists,  they  were  "  disobeying  the 
truth  "  (ch.  V.  7,  8).  They  were  disloyal  to  conscience  ; 
they  were  trifling  with  the  most  sacred  convictions  of 
their  lives,  and  with  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
They  were  forgetting  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  making 
His  death  of  none  effect.  Surely  they  must  have  been 
"  bewitched  "  to  act  thus  ;  seme  deadly  spell  was  upon 
them,  VN^hich  had  laid  memory  and  conscience  both  to 
sleep  (ch.  ii.  2i — iii.  3). 

The  nature  and  the  contents  of  the  two  ^*  gospels  " 
current  in  Galatia  will  be  made  clear  in  the  further 
course  of  the  Epistle.  They  were  the  gospels  of 
Grace  and  of  Law  respectively ;  of  Salvation  by  Faith, 
and  by  Works  ;  of  life  in  the  Spirit,  and  in  the  Flesh  ; 
of  the  Cross  and  the  Resurrection  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  Circumcision  and  the  Kalendar  and  "  Clean 
meats  "  on  the  other ;  the  gospels  of  inwardness,  and 
of  externalism — of  Christ,  and  of  self.  The  conflict 
between  these  two  was  the  great  struggle  of  Paul's  life. 
His  success  was,  historically  speaking,  the  salvation  of 
Christianity. 

But  this  contention  did  not  end  with  his  victory. 
The  Judaistic  perversion  appealed  to  tendencies  too 
persistent  in  our  nature  to  be  crushed  at  one  blow. 
The  gospel  cf  externalism  is  dear  to  the  human  heart. 
It  may  take  the  form  of  culture  and  moralities ;  or  of 
"  services  "  and  sacraments  and  churchly  order ;  or  of 
orthodoxy  and  philanthropy.  These  and  such  things 
make  therr.selves  our  idols  ;  and  trust  in  them  takes 
the  place  of  faith  in  the  living  Christ.  It  is  not  enough 
that  the  eyes  of  our  heart   should  once  have  seen  the 


1. 6-10.]  THE  ANATHEMA.  43 

Lord,  that  we  should  in  other  days  have  experienced 
"  the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  It  is  possible  to 
forget,  possible  to  "  remove  from  Him  that  called  us 
in  the  grace  of  Christ."  With  little  change  in  the  form 
of  our  religious  life,  its  inward  reality  of  joy  in  God, 
of  conscious  sonship,  of  fellowship  in  the  Spirit,  may 
be  utterly  departed.  The  gospel  of  formalism  will 
spring  up  and  flourish  on  the  most  evangelical  soil, 
and  in  the  most  strictly  Pauline  Churches.  Let  it  be 
banned  and  barred  out  never  so  completely,  it  knows 
how  to  find  entrance,  under  the  simplest  modes  of 
worship  and  the  soundest  doctrine.  The  serried 
defence  of  Articles  and  Confessions  constructed  against 
it  will  not  prevent  its  entrance,  and  may  even  prove 
its  cover  and  intrenchment.  Nothing  avails,  as  the 
Apostle  says,  but  a  constant  "  new  creation."  The 
life  of  God  in  human  souls  is  sustained  by  the  energy 
of  His  Spirit,  perpetually  renewed,  ever  proceeding  from 
the  Father  and  the  Son.  "  The  life  that  I  live  in  the 
flesh,  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved 
me  and  gave  Himself  for  me."  This  is  the  true 
orthodoxy.  The  vitality  of  his  personal  faith  in  Christ 
kept  Paul  safe  from  error,  faithful  in  will  and  intellect 
to  the  one  gospel. 

IL  We  have  still  to  consider  the  import  of  the 
judgement  pronounced  by  Paul  upon  those  who  pervert 
the  gospel  of  Christ.  "  Let  him  be  anathema.  Even 
should  it  be  ourselves,  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  let  him 
be  anathema." 

These  are  tremendous  words.  Commentators  have 
been  shocked  at  the  Apostle's  damning  his  opponents 
after  this  fashion,  and  have  sought  to  lighten  the  weight 
of  this  awful  sentence.  It  has  been  sometimes  toned 
down  into  an  act  of  excommunication  or  ecclesiastical 


44  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

censure.  But  this  explanation  will  not  hold.  Paul 
could  not  think  of  subjecting  "  an  angel "  to  a  penalty 
like  that.  He  pronounced  excommunication  against 
disorderly  members  of  the  Thessalonian  Church  ;  and 
in  I  Cor.  v.  I — 8  he  gives  directions  for  the  carrying 
out  of  a  similar  decree,  attended  with  severe  bodily 
affliction  supernaturally  adjudged,  against  a  sinner 
whose  presence  grossly  stained  the  purity  of  the  Church. 
But  this  sentence  goes  beyond  either  of  those.  It 
contemplates  the  exclusion  of  the  offenders  from  the 
Covenant  of  grace,  their  loss  of  final  salvation. 

Thrice  besides  has  Paul  used  this  ominous  word. 
The  cry  ''  Jesus  is  anathema,"  in  I  Cor.  xii.  3,  reveals 
with  a  lurid  effect  the  frenzied  malignity  towards  Christ 
of  which  the  spirit  of  evil  is  sometimes  capable.  In 
a  very  different  connection  the  word  appears  in  Rom. 
ix.  3  ;  where  Paul  ^^  could  wish  himself  anathema  from 
Christ,"  if  that  were  possible,  for  his  brethren's  sake ; 
he  could  find  it  in  his  heart  to  be  cut  off  for  ever  from 
that  love  of  God  in  Christ  of  which  he  has  just  spoken 
in  terms  of  unbounded  joy  and  confidence  (Rom.  viii. 
31 — 39),  and  banished  from  the  heavenly  kingdom,  if 
through  his  exclusion  his  Jewish  kindred  might  be 
saved.  Self-sacrifice  can  go  no  further.  No  heavier 
loss  than  this  could  be  conceived  for  any  human  being. 
Nearest  to  our  passage  is  the  imprecation  at  the  end  of 
I  Corinthians:  ^*  If  any  man  love  not  the  Lord,  let  him 
be  anathema," — a  judgement  proclaimed  against  cold 
and  false  hearts,  knowing  His  love,  bearing  His  name, 
but  with  no  true  love  to  Him. 

This  Greek  word  in  its  Biblical  use  has  grown  out  of 
the  che'rem  of  the    Old    Testament,  the   ban   declared 
a£ainst  that  which  was  cut  off  from  the  Divine  mercit 
and  exposed  to  the  full  sweep  of  judgement.     Tlius  in 


i.6-io.]  THE  ANATHEMA.  45 

Deut.  xiii.  12 — i<S,  the  city  whose  people  should  *'go 
and  serve  otiier  gods,"  is  declared  che'rem  (iinalhema), 
an  '^accursed/'  or  "devoted  thing"  (R.V.),  on  which 
ensues  its  destruction  by  sword  and  fire,  leaving  it  to 
rt-main  "  a  ruin-htap  for  ever."  Similarly  in  Joshua 
vi.,  vii.,  the  spoil  of  Jericho  is  aiiallieina,  Achan's  theft  is 
therefore  anathema,  and  Israel  is  made  by  it  anathema 
until  "  the  accursed  thing  is  destroyed "  from  among 
the  people.  Such  were  the  recollections  associated 
with  this  word  in  the  Mosaic  law,  which  it  would  in- 
evitably carry  with  it  to  the  minds  of  those  against 
whom  it  was  now  directed.  And  there  is  nothing  in 
later  Jewish  usage  to  mitigate  its  force. 

Now  the  Apostle  is  not  writing  like  a  man  in  a 
passion,  who  flings  out  his  words  as  missiles,  eager 
only  to  wound  and  confound  his  opponents.  He 
repeats  the  sentence.  He  quotes  it  as  one  that  he 
had  already  affirmed  in  the  hearing  of  his  readers. 
The  passage  bears  the  marks  of  well-weighed  thought 
and  judicial  solemnity.  In  pronouncing  this  judge- 
ment on  "  the  troublers,"  Paul  acts  under  the  sense 
of  Apostolic  responsibility.  We  must  place  the 
sentence  in  the  same  line  as  that  of  Peter  against 
Ananias  and  Sapphira,  and  of  Paul  himself  against 
Elymas  the  Cypriot  sorcerer,  and  against  the  incestuous 
Corinthian.  In  each  case  there  is  a  supernatural 
insight  and  authorization,  *'the  authority  which  the 
Lord  gave"  and  which  is  wielded  by  His  inspired 
Apostle.  The  exercise  of  this  judicial  function  was  one 
of  "  the  signs  of  the  Apostle."  This  was  the  proof  of 
"  Christ  speaking  in  him  "  which  Paul  was  so  loth  to 
give  at  Corinth,*  but  which  at  this  crisis  of  his  ministry 

•  a  Cor.  X.  I— II  ;  xiii.  1 — 10  ;  I  Cor.  iv   18— 31, 


46  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CALATIANS. 

he  was  compelled  to  display.  And  if  he  "  reckons  to 
be  bold  against "  his  adversaries  in  Galatia,  he  knows 
well  the  ground  on  which  he  stands. 

His  anathema  struck  at  men  who  were  the  worst 
enemies  of  Christ,  "  We  can  do  nothing  against  the 
truth,"  he  says  ;  *^  but  for  the  truth  "  he  was  ready  to 
do  and  dare  everything, — to  "  come  with  a  rod/'  as  he 
tells  the  proud  Corinthians.  There  was  no  authority, 
however  lofty,  that  he  was  not  w^arranted  to  use  on 
Christ's  behalf,  no  measure,  however  severe,  from  which 
he  would  shrink,  if  it  were  required  in  defence  of  the 
truth  of  the  Gospel.  ''  He  possesses  weapons,  not 
fleshly,  but  mighty  through  God  " ;  and  he  is  prepared 
to  bring  them  all  into  play  rather  than  see  the  gospel 
perverted  or  overthrown.  Paul  will  hurl  his  anathema 
at  the  prince  of  the  archangels,  should  He  come 
"  preaching  another  gospel,"  tempting  his  children  from 
their  allegiance  to  Christ.  This  bolt  was  not  shot  a 
moment  too  soon.  Launched  against  the  legalist 
conspiracy,  and  followed  up  by  the  arguments  of 
this  and  the  Roman  Epistle,  it  saved  the  Church 
from  being  overpowered  by  reactionary  Judaism.  The 
Apostle's  judgement  has  marked  the  gospel  of  the 
cross  for  all  time  as  God's  inviolable  truth,  guarded  by 
lightnings. 

The  sentences  of  judgement  pronounced  by  the 
Apostles  present  a  striking  contrast  to  those  that  have 
fulminated  from  the  Chair  of  their  self-styled  successors. 
In  the  Canons  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  for  example,  we 
have  counted  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  anathemas. 
A  large  proportion  of  these  are  concerned  with  the 
rights  of  the  priesthood ;  others  with  complicated  and 
secondary  points  of  doctrine  ;  some  are  directed  virtually 
against   the   teaching   of  Paul  himself.     Here   is   one 


i.  6-io.J  THE  ANATHEMA.  47 


specimen  :  "  If  any  one  shall  say  that  justifying  faith  is 
nothing  else  but  a  trust  in  the  Divine  mercy,  remitting 
sins  for  Christ's  sake,  or  that  it  is  this  trust  alone  by 
which  we  are  justified:  let  him  be  anathema."  *  Again, 
*'  If  any  one  shall  say  that  the  Canon  of  the  Mass 
contains  errors,  and  therefore  should  be  abrogated  :  let 
him  be  anathema."  f  In  the  closing  session,  the  final 
act  of  the  presiding  Cardinal  was  to  pronounce, 
"Anathema  to  all  heretics;"  to  which  the  assembled 
prelates  shouted  in  response,  "Anathema,  anathema." 
With  this  imprecation  on  their  lips  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church  concluded  their  pious  labours.  It  was  the  Re- 
formation, it  was  "  the  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God  "  that 
Rome  anathematized.  Paul's  censure  holds  good  against 
all  the  Conciliar  Canons  and  Papal  Bulls  that  con- 
travene it.  But  twice  has  he  pronounced  this  awful 
word  ;  once  against  any  that  "  love  not  the  Lord,"  a 
second  time  upon  those  who  wilfully  pervert  His 
gospel.  The  Papal  anathemas  sound  like  the  maledic- 
tions of  an  angry  priesthood,  jealous  for  its  prerogatives; 
here  we  have  the  holy  severity  of  an  inspired  Apostle, 
concerned  only  for  the  truth,  and  for  his  Master's 
honour.  There  speaks  the  conscious  ''  lord  over  God's 
heritage,"  wearing  the  triple  crown,  wielding  the  powers 
of  Interdict  and  Inquisition,  whose  word  sets  armies  in 
motion  and  makes  kings  tremble  on  their  seats.  Here 
a  feeble,  sohtary  man,  "  his  bodily  presence  weak,  his 
speech  contemptible,"  hunted  from  place  to  place, 
scourged  and  stoned,  shut  up  for  years  in  prison,  who 
could  not,  except  for  love's  sake,  command  the  meanest 
service.  How  conspicuous  in  the  one  case,  how  want- 
ing in  the  other,  is  the  might  of  the   Spirit  and   the 


•  Session  vi.,  Can.  xii.  t  Session  xxii.,  Can.  vi. 

1 


48  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS, 


dignity   of  the   inspired   word,    the   transcendence   of 
moral  authority. 

It  is  the  moral  conduct  of  those  he  judges  that 
determines  in  each  case  the  sentence  passed  by  the 
Apostle.  For  a  man  knowing  Jesus  Christ,  as  we 
presume  the  members  of  the  Corinthian  Church  did 
know  Him,  not  to  love  Him,  argues  a  bad  heart.  Must 
not  we  count  ourselves  accurfjed,  if  with  our  knowledge 
of  Christ  we  had  no  love  for  Him  ?  Such  a  man  is 
already  virtually  anathema.  He  is  severed  as  a  branch 
from  its  vine,  ready  to  be  gathered  for  the  burning 
(John  XV.  6).  And  these  Galatian  disturbers  were 
something  worse  than  mere  mistaken  enthusiasts  for 
their  native  Jewish  rites.  Their  policy  was  dishonour- 
able (ch.  iv.  17).  They  made  the  gospel  of  Christ  sub- 
servient to  factious  designs.  They  sought  to  win 
credit  with  their  fellow-countrymen  and  to  escape  the 
reproach  of  the  cross  by  imposing  circumcision  on  the 
Gentiles  (ch.  ii.  4;vi.  12,  13).  They  prostituted  religion 
to  selfish  and  party  purposes.  They  sacrificed  truth  to 
popularity,  the  glory  of  Christ  and  the  cross  to  their 
own.  They  were  of  those  whom  the  Apostle  describes 
as  "walking  in  craftiness  and  handling  the  word  of 
God  deceitfully,"  who  "  traffic  "  in  the  gospel,  peddling 
with  it  as  with  petty  wares,  cheapening  and  adultera- 
ting it  like  dishonest  hucksters  to  make  their  own 
market  by  it  (2  Cor.  ii.  17;  iv.  2).  Did  not  Paul  do 
well  to  smite  them  with  the  rod  of  his  mouth  ?  Justly 
has  he  marked  with  the  brand  of  this  fiery  anathema 
the  false  minister,  "  who  serves  not  the  Lord  Christ, 
but  his  own  belly." 

But  does  this  declaration  preclude  in  such  a  case  the 
possibility  of  repentance?  We  trow  not.  It  declares 
the  doom  which  is  due  to  any,  be  he  man  or  angel,  who 


i.6.io.]  THE  ANATHEMA.  49 

should  do  what  these  *'troub).ers"  are  doing.  It  is  a 
general  sentence,  and  has  for  the  individuals  concerned 
the  effect  of  a  warning,  like  the  announcement  made 
concerning  the  Traitor  at  the  Last  Supper.  •  However 
unlikely  repentance  might  be  in  either  instance,  there 
is  nothing  to  forbid  it.  So  when  Peter  said  to  Simon 
Magus,  "Thy  money  perish  with  thee!"  he  neverthe- 
less continued,  "  Repent,  therefore,  of  this  thy  wicked- 
ness, and  pray  the  Lord,  if  perhaps  the  thought  of  thy 
heart  shall  be  forgiven  thee  "  (Acts  viii.  20 — 22).  To 
his  worst  opponents,  on  any  sign  of  contrition,  Paul, 
we  may  be  sure,  would  have  gladly  said  the  same. 


THE  PERSONAL  HISTORY. 
Chapter  i.   ii — ii.  21. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

PAUVS  GOSPEL  REVEALED  BY  CHRIST. 

**  For  I  make  known  to  you,  brethren,  as  touching  the  gospel 
which  was  preached  by  me,  that  it  is  not  after  man.  For  neither  did  I 
receive  it  from  man,  nor  was  I  taught  it,  but  it  came  to  me  through 
revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.  For  ye  have  heard  of  my  manner  of  life  in 
time  past  in  the  Jews'  religion,  how  that  beyond  measure  I  persecuted 
the  church  of  God,  and  made  havock  of  it :  and  I  advanced  in  the 
Jews'  religion  beyond  many  of  mine  own  age  among  my  countrymen, 
being  more  exceedingly  zealous  for  the  traditions  of  my  fathers." 
—Gal.  i.  ii — 14. 

HERE  the  Epistle  begins  in  its  main  purport. 
What  has  gone  before  is  so  much  exordium.  The 
sharp,  stern  sentences  of  vv.  6 — 10  are  like  the  roll  of 
artillery  that  ushers  in  the  battle.  The  mists  rise 
from  the  field.  We  see  the  combatants  arrayed  on 
either  side.  In  due  order  and  with  cool  self-command 
the  Apostle  proceeds  to  marshal  and  deploy  his 
forces.  His  truthful  narrative  corrects  the  misrepre- 
sentations of  his  opponents,  and  repels  their  attack 
upon  himself.  His  powerful  dialectic  wrests  from 
their  hands  and  turns  against  them  their  weapons  of 
Scriptural  proof.  He  wins  the  citadel  of  their  position, 
by  establishing  the  claim  of  the  men  of  faith  to  be  the 
sons  of  Abraham.  On  the  ruins  of  confuted  legalism 
he  builds  up  an  impregnable  fortress  for  Christian 
liberty,  an  immortal  vindication  of  the  gospel  of  the 
grace  of  God. 


54  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATJANS. 

The   cause   of  Gentile   freedom    at   this  crisis   was 
bound  up  with  the  person  of  the  Apostle  Paul.     His 
Gospel  and  his  Apostleship  must  stand  or  fall  together. 
The  former  was  assailed  through  the  latter.     He  was 
himself  just  now  ''the  pillar  and  stay  of  the  truth." 
If  his  character  had  been  successfully  attacked  and  his 
influence  destroyed,  nothing,  humanly  speaking,  could 
have    saved    Gentile    Christendom    at    this    decisive 
moment    from  falling  under  the  assaults  of  Judaism. 
When   he  begins  his   crucial    appeal  with  the  words, 
"  Behold,  /  Paid  say  unto  you  "  (ch.  v.  2),  we  feel  that 
the  issue  depends  upon  the  weight  which  his  readers 
may  attach  to  his  personal  affirmation.     He  pits  his 
own  truthfulness,  his  knowledge  of  Christ,  his  spiritual 
discernment    and   authority,    and    the   respect   due   to 
himself  from  the  Galatians,  against  the  pretensions  of 
the  new   teachers.     The  comparison  is  not  indeed  so 
open  and  express  as  that  made  in  2  Corinthians  ;  none 
the  less  it  tacitly  runs  through  this  Epistle.     Paul  is 
compelled  to  put  himself  in  the  forefront  of  his  argu- 
ment.    In  the  eyes  of  his  children  in  the  faith,  he  is 
bound  to  vindicate  his  Apostolic  character,  defamed  by 
Jewish  malice  and  untruth. 

The  first  two  chapters  of  this  Epistle  are  therefore 
Paul's  Apologia  pro  vita  sua.  With  certain  chapters  in 
2  Corinthians,  and  scattered  passages  in  other  letters, 
they  form  the  Apostle's  autobiography,  one  of  the 
most  perfect  self-portraitures  that  literature  contains. 
They  reveal  to  us  the  man  more  effectively  than 
any  ostensible  description  could  have  done.  They 
furnish  an  indispensable  supplement  to  the  external 
and  cursory  delineations  given  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  While  Luke  skilfully  presents  the  outward 
framework  of  Paul's  life  and  the  events  of  his  public, 


i.  II-I4.]       PAULS  GOSPEL   REVEALED  BY  CHRIST.     55 

career,  it  is  to  the  Epistles  that  we  turn — to  none 
more  frequently  than  this — for  the  necessary  subjective 
data,  for  all  that  belongs  to  his  inner  character,  his 
motives  and  principles.  This  Epistle  brings  into  bold 
relief  the  Apostle's  moral  physiognomy.  Above  all,  it 
throws  a  clear  and  penetrating  light  on  the  event 
which  determined  his  career — the  greatest  event  in  the 
history  of  Christianity  after  the  Day  of  Pentecost — 
Paul's  conversion  to  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus. 

This  was  at  once  the  turning-point  in  the  Apostle's 
life,  and  the  birth-hour  of  his  gospel.  If  the  Galatians 
were  to  understand  his  teaching,  they  must  understand 
this  occurrence  ;  they  must  know  why  he  became  a 
Christian,  how  he  had  received  the  message  which 
he  brought  to  them.  They  would,  he  felt  sure,  enter 
more  sympathetically  into  his  doctrine,  if  they  were 
better  acquainted  with  the  way  in  which  he  had 
arrived  at  it.  They  would  see  how  well-justified  was 
the  authority,  how  needful  the  severity  with  which  he 
writes.  Accordingly  he  begins  with  a  brief  relation  of 
the  circumstances  of  his  call  to  the  service  of  Christ, 
and  his  career  from  the  days  of  his  Judaistic  zeal,  when 
he  made  havoc  of  the  faith,  till  the  well-known  occa- 
sion on  which  he  became  its  champion  against  Peter 
himself,  the  chief  of  the  Twelve  (ch.  i.  1 1 — ii.  21.)  His 
object  in  this  recital  appears  to  be  threefold  :  to  refute 
the  misrepresentations  of  the  Circumcisionists ;  to 
vindicate  his  independent  authority  as  an  Apostle  of 
Christ ;  and  further,  to  unfold  the  nature  and  terms  of 
his  gospel,  so  as  to  pave  the  way  for  the  theological 
argument  which  is  to  follow,  and  which  forms  the  body 
of  the  Epistle. 

I.  Paul's  gospel  was  supernatiirally  conveyed  to  him^ 
by    a    personal  intervention    of    Jesus     Christ.      This 


S6  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

assertion  is  the  Apostle's  starting-point.  "  My  gospel 
is  not  after  man.  I  received  it  as  Jesus  Christ  revealed 
it  to  me." 

That  the  initial  revelation  was  made  to  him  by 
Christ  in  person,  was  a  fact  of  incalculable  importance 
for  Paul.  This  had  made  him  an  Apostle,  in  the 
august  sense  in  which  he  claims  the  title  (ver.  i). 
This  accounts  for  the  vehemence  with  which  he  defends 
his  doctrine,  and  for  the  awful  sentence  which  he  has 
passed  upon  its  impugners.  The  Divine  authorship  of 
the  gospel  he  preached  made  it  impossible  for  him 
to  temporize  with  its  perverters,  or  to  be  influenced 
by  human  favour  or  disfavour  in  its  administration. 
Had  his  teaching  been  ''  according  to  man/'  he  might 
have  consented  to  a  compromise ;  he  might  reasonably 
have  tried  to  humour  and  accommodate  Jewish  pre- 
judices. But  the  case  is  far  otherwise.  ''  I  am  not  at 
liberty  to  please  men,"  he  says,  *^for  my  gospel  comes 
directly  from  Jesus  Christ"  (vv.  lo,  ii).  So  he 
**  gives  "  his  readers  ^'  to  know,"  as  if  by  way  of  formal 
notification.* 

The  gospel  of  Paul  was  inviolable,  then,  because 
of  its  superhuman  character.  And  this  character  was 
impressed  upon  it  by  its  superhuman  origin  :  "  not 
according  to  man,  for  neither  from  man  did  I  receive 
it,  nor  was  I  taught  it,  but  by  a  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ."  The  Apostle's  knowledge  of  Christianity  did 
not  come  through  the  ordinary  channel  of  tradition 
and  indoctrination;  Jesus  Christ  had,  by  a  miraculous 
interposition,  taught  him  the  truth  about  Himself.  He 
says,  "  Neither  did  /,"  with  an  emphasis  that  points 
tacitly  to  the  elder  Apostles,  whom  he  mentions  a  few 

•  Comp.  Rom.  ix.  22  ;   i  Cor,  xii.  3  ;  xv.  I  ;  2  Cor.  viii.  i. 


i.  II-I4.]       PAULS  GOSPEL   REVEALED  BY  CHRIST.     $7 

sentences  later  (ver.  17).  To  this  comparison  his  adver- 
saries forced  him,  making  use  of  it  as  they  freely  did  to 
his  disparagement.*  But  it  comes  in  by  implication 
rather  than  direct  assertion.  Only  by  putting  violence 
upon  himself,  and  with  strong  expressions  of  his 
unworthiness,  can  Paul  be  brought  to  set  his  official 
claims  in  competition  with  those  of  the  Twelve.  Not- 
withstanding, it  is  perfectly  clear  that  he  puts  his 
ministry  on  a  level  with  theirs.  He  is  no  Apostle 
at  second-hand,  no  disciple  of  Peter's  or  dependant 
of  the  "pillars"  at  Jerusalem.  "Neither  did  I,"  he 
declares,  "  any  more  than  they,  take  my  instructions 
from  other  lips  than  those  of  Jesus  our  Lord." 

But  what  of  this  "  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ,"  on 
which  Paul  lays  so  much  stress  ?  Does  he  mean  a 
revelation  made  by  Christ,  or  aboui  Christ  ?  Taken 
by  itself,  the  expression,  in  Greek  as  in  English,  bears 
either  interpretation.  In  favour  of  the  second  con- 
struction— viz.  that  Paul  speaks  of  a  revelation  by 
which  Christ  was  made  known  to  him — the  language 
of  ver.  16  is  adduced  :  "It  pleased  God  to  reveal  His 
Son  in  me."  Paul's  general  usage  points  in  the  same 
direction.  With  him  Christ  is  the  obj'ecl  of  manifesta- 
tion, preaching,  and  the  like.  2  Cor.  xii.  I  is  probably 
an  instance  to  the  contrary :  "  I  will  come  to  visions 
and  revelations  of  the  Lord."  f  But  it  should  be 
observed  that  wherever  this  genitive  is  objective  (a 
revelation  revealing  Christ),  God  appears  in  the  con- 
text, just  as  in  ver.  16  below^  to  Whom  the  authorship 
of  the  revelation    is   ascribed.     In    this    instance,    the 

*  Seech,  ii.  6 — 14  ;   i  Cor.  i.  12  ;  iii.  22  ;  iv.  9  ;  ix.  I — 5  ;  xv.  8 — 10. 

t  This  genitive  is,  however,  open  to  the  other  construction,  which 
is  unquestionable  in  I  Cor.  i.  7  ;  2  Thess.  i.  7  ;  also  i  Pet.  i.  7,  13. 
Rev.  i.  I  furnishes  a  prominent  example  of  the  subjective  genitive. 


5^.  THE  EPISTLE   TO    THE   GALATIANS. 


gospel  is  the  object  revealed ;  and  Jesus  Christy  in 
contrast  with  man,  is  claimed  for  its  Author.  So  at 
the  outset  (vcr.  i)  Christ,  in  His  Divine  character,  was 
the  Agent  by  whom  Paul,  as  veritably  as  the  Twelve, 
had  received  his  Apostlcship.  We  therefore  assent  to 
the  ordinary  view,  reading  this  passage  in  the  light  of 
the  vision  of  Jesus  thrice  related  in  the  Acts.*  We 
understand  Paul  to  say  that  no  mere  man  imparted  to 
him  the  gospel  he  preached,  but  Jesus  Christ  revealed  it. 

On  the  Damascus  road  the  Apostle  Paul  found  his 
mission.  The  vision  of  the  glorified  Jesus  made  him  a 
Christian,  and  an  Apostle.  The  act  was  a  revelation — that 
is,  in  New  Testament  phrase,  a  supernatural,  an  imme- 
diately Divine  communication  of  truth.  And  it  was  a 
revelation  not  conveyed  in  the  first  instance,  as  were 
the  ordinary  prophetic  inspirations,  through  the  Spirit ; 
"Jesus  Christ,"  in  Plis  Divine-human  person,  made 
Himself  known  to  His  persecutor.  Paul  had  "  seen 
that  Just  One  and  heard  a  voice  from  His  mouth." 

The  appearance  of  Jesus  to  Saul  of  Tarsus  was  in 
itself  a  gospel,  an  earnest  of  the  good  tidings  he  was  to 
convey  to  the  world.  "  Why  persecutest  thou  Me  ?  " 
that  Divine  voice  said,  in  tones  of  reproach,  yet  of 
infinite  pity.  The  sight  of  Jesus  the  Lord,  meeting 
Saul's  eyes,  revealed  His  grace  and  truth  to  the  perse- 
cutor's heart.  He  was  brought  in  a  moment  to  the 
obedience  of  faith  ;  he  said,  *'  Lord,  what  wilt  Thou 
have  me  to  do  ?  "  He  "  confessed  with  his  mouth  the 
Lord  Jesus"  ;  he  "believed  in  his  heart  that  God  had 
raised  Him  from  the  dead."  It  was  true,  after  all,  that 
"God  had  made"  the  crucified  Nazarene  "both  Lord 
and  Christ ; "  for  this  was  He  I 

*  Acts  ix.  I — 19  ;  xxii.  5 — 16  ;  xxvi.  12 — 18. 


I.  1 1- 14  J      PAULS  GOSPEL  REVEALED  BY  CHRIST,     59 


The  cross,  which  had  been  Saul's  stumbling-block, 
deeply  aifronting  his  Jewish  pride,  from  this  moment 
was  transformed.  The  gl9ry  of  the  exalted  Redeemer 
cast  back  its  light  upon  the  tree  of  shame.  The  curse 
of  the  Law  visibly  resting  upon  Him,  the  rejection  of 
men,  marked  Him  out  as  God's  chosen  sacrifice  for  sin. 
This  explanation  at  once  presented  itself  to  an  instructed 
and  keenly  theological  mind  like  Saul's,  so  soon  as  it 
was  evident  that  Jesus  was  not  accursed,  as  he  had 
supposed,  but  approved  by  God.  So  Paul's  gospel 
was  given  him  at  a  stroke.  Jesus  Christ  dying  for  our 
sins,  Jesus  Christ  living  to  save  and  to  rule — behold 
"  the  good  news  "  1  The  Apostle  had  it  on  no  less 
authority  than  that  of  the  risen  Saviour.  From  Him 
he  received  it  to  publish  v/ide  as  the  world. 

Thus  Saul  of  Tarsus  was  born  again.  And  with 
the  Christian  man,  the  Christian  thinker,  the  theologian, 
was  born  in  him.  The  Pauline  doctrine  has  its  root  in 
Paul's  conversion.  It  was  a  single,  organic  growth,  the 
seed  of  which  was  this  "  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ." 
Its  creative  impulse  was  given  in  the  experience  of  the 
memorable  hour,  when  "  God  who  said.  Light  shall 
shine  out  of  darkness,  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ 
shined  "  into  Saul's  heart.  As  the  light  of  this  reve- 
lation penetrated  his  spirit,  he  recognised,  step  by  step, 
the  fact  of  the  resurrection,  the  import  of  the  crucifixion, 
the  Divinity  of  Jesus,  His  human  mediatorship,  the 
virtue  of  faith,  the  office  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  futility 
of  Jewish  ritual  and  works  of  law,  and  all  the  essential 
principles  of  his  theology.  Given  the  genius  of  Saul 
and  his  religious  training,  and  the  Pauline  system  of 
doctrine  was,  one  might  almost  say,  a  necessmy  deduction 
from  the  fact  of  the  appearance  to  him  of  the  glorified 
Jesus,     if  that  form  of  celestial  splendour  was  Jesus, 


6o  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


then  He  was  risen  indeed ;  then  He  was  the  Christ ; 
He  was,  as  He  affirmed,  the  Son  of  God.  If  He  was 
Lord  and  Christ,  and  yet  died  by  the  Father's  will  on 
the  cross  of  shame,  then  His  death  could  only  be  a 
propitiation,  accepted  by  God,  for  the  sins  of  men, 
whose  efficacy  had  no  limit,  and  whose  merit  left  no 
room  for  legal  works  of  righteousness.  If  this  Jesus 
was  the  Christ,  then  the  assumptions  of  Saul's  Judaism, 
which  had  led  him  into  blasphemous  hatred  and  outrage 
towards  Him,  were  radically  false ;  he  will  purge  him- 
self from  the  "  old  leaven,"  that  his  life  may  become 
*'  a  new  lump."  From  that  moment  a  world  of  life  and 
thought  began  for  the  future  Apostle,  the  opposite  in 
all  respects  of  that  in  which  hitherto  he  had  moved. 
^'  The  old  things,"  he  cries,  ^'  passed  away ;  lo,  they 
have  become  new  "  (2  Cor.  v.  1 7).  Paul's  conversion 
was  as  complete  as  it  was  sudden. 

This  intimate  relation  of  doctrine  and  experience 
gives  to  Paul's  teaching  a  peculiar  warmth  and  fresh- 
ness, a  vividness  of  human  reality  which  it  everywhere 
retains,  despite  its  lofty  intellectualism  and  the  scholastic 
form  in  which  it  is  largely  cast.  It  is  theology  alive, 
trembling  with  emotion,  speaking  words  like  flames, 
forming  dogmas  hard  as  rock,  that  when  you  touch 
them  are  yet  glowing  with  the  heat  of  those  central 
depths  of  the  human  spirit  from  which  they  were  cast 
up.  The  collision  of  the  two  great  Apostles  at  Antioch 
shows  how  the  strength  of  Paul's  teaching  lay  in  his 
inward  realization  of  the  truth.  There  was  lije  behind 
his  doctrine.  He  was,  and  for  the  time  the  Jewish 
Apostle  was  not,  acting  and  speaking  out  of  the  reahty 
of  spiritual  conviction,  of  truth  personally  verified.  Of 
the  Apostle  Paul  above  all  divines  the  saying  is  true, 
Pectus  facit  theologum.     And  this  personal  knowledge 


i.  II-I4.]      PAULS  GOSPEL  REVEALED  BY  CHRIST.     6i 

of  Christ,  "  the  master  light  of  all  his  seeing,"  began 
when  on  the  way  to  Damascus  his  eyes  beheld  Jesus 
our  Lord.  His  farewell  charge  to  the  Church  through 
Timothy  (2  Tim.  i.  9 — 12),  while  referring  to  the  general 
manifestation  of  Christ  to  the  world,  does  so  in  language 
coloured  by  the  recollection  of  the  peculiar  revelation 
made  at  the  beginning  to  himself:  *' God,"  he  says, 
"  called  us  with  a  holy  calling,  according  to  His  purpose 
and  grace,  which  hath  now  been  manifested  by  the 
appearing  *  of  our  Saviour  Christ  Jesus,  who  abolished 
death  and  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  t 
through  the  gospel,  whereunto  /  was  appointed  a 
preacher  and  apostle.  For  which  cause  1  also  suffer 
these  things.  But  I  am  not  ashamed  :  for  I  know  Him 
in  whom  I  have  believed."  This  manifestation  of  the 
celestial  Christ  shed  its  brightness  along  all  his  path. 

II.  His  assertion  of  the  Divine  origin  of  his  doctrine 
Paul  sustains  by  referring  to  the  previous  course  of  his 
life.  There  was  certainly  nothing  in  that  to  account 
for  his  preaching  Christ  crucified.  "  For  you  have 
heard,"  he  continues,  "  of  my  manner  of  life  aforetime, 
when  I  followed  Judaism." 

Here  ends  the  chain  o'ifors  reaching  from  ver.  10  to  13 
— a  succession  of  explanations  linking  Paul's  denuncia- 
tion of  the  Christian  Judaizers  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
himself  been  a  violent  anti-Christian  Judaist.  The  seem- 
ing contradiction  is  in  reality  a  consistent  sequence. 
Only  one  who  had  imbibed  the  spirit  of  legalism  as 
vSaul  of  Tarsus  had  done,  could  justly  appreciate  the 
hostility  of  its  principles  to  the  new  faith,  and  the 
sinister  motives  actuating  the  men   who  pretended  to 

*  'ETTt^ai'e/a,  a  supernatural  appearance,  such  as  that  of  the  Second 
Advent. 

\  4>a;ri^w,  comp.  2  Cor.  iv.  6. 


62  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

reconcile  them.  Paul  knew  Judaism  by  heart.  He 
understood  the  sort  of  men  who  opposed  him  in  the 
Gentile  Churches.  And  if  his  anathema  appear  need- 
lessly severe,  we  must  remember  that  no  one  was  so 
well  able  to  judge  of  the  necessities  of  the  case  as  the 
man  who  pronounced  it. 

"You  have  heard" — from  whom?  In  the  first 
instance,  probably,  from  Paul  himself.  But  on  this 
matter,  we  may  be  pretty  sure,  his  opponents  would 
have  something  to  say.  They  did  not  scruple  to  assert 
that  he  "still  preached  circumcision"*  and  played 
the  Jew  even  now  when  it  suited  him,  charging  him 
with  insincerity.  Or  they  might  say,  "  Paul  is  a 
renegade.  Once  the  most  ardent  of  zealots  for  Judaism, 
he  has  passed  to  the  cppcsite  extreme.  He  is  a  man 
you  cannot  trust.  Apostates  are  proverbially  bitter 
against  their  old  faith."  In  these  and  in  other  ways 
Paul's  Pharisaic  career  was  doubtless  thrown  in  his 
teeth. 

The  Apostle  sorrowfully  confesses  "  that  above 
measure  he  persecuted  the  Church  of  God  and  laid 
it  waste."  His  friend  Luke  makes  the  same  admission 
in  similar  language,  f  There  is  no  attempt  to  conceal 
or  palliate  this  painful  fact,  that  the  famous  Apostle  of 
the  Gentiles  had  been  a  persecutor,  the  deadliest  enemy 
of  the  Church  in  its  infant  days.  He  was  the  very 
type  of  a  determined,  pitiless  oppressor,  the  forerunner 
of  the  Jewish  fanatics  uho  afterwards  sought  his  life, 
and  of  the  cruel  bigots  of  the  Inquisition  and  the  Star- 
chamber  in  later  tinies.  His  restless  energy,  his 
indifference  to  the  feelings  of  humanity  in  this  work 
of  destruction,  were  due  to  religious  zeal.     "  I  thought," 

*  Ch.  V.  II  ;  comp.  i  Cor.  ix.  20;  Actsxvi.  3  ;  xxi.  20 — 26  ;  xxiii.  6. 
f  Acts  vii.  58  ;  viii.  I — 3  ;  ix.  I. 


i.  U-I4.]      PAULS  GOSPEL   REVEALED  BY  CHRISP.     63 

he  says,  "  I  ought  to  do  many  things  contrary  to  the 
name  of  Jcr^us  of  Nazareth."  In  him,  as  in  so  many 
others,  the  saying  of  Christ  was  fulfilled  :  "  The  time 
Cometh,  when  whoso  killeth  you  will  think  that  he  is 
offering  a  sacrifice  to  God."  These  Nazarenes  were 
heretics,  i.aitors  to  Israel,  enemies  of  God.  Their 
leader  had  been  crucified,  branded  with  the  extremest 
mark  of  Divine  displeasure.  His  followers  must  perish. 
Their  success  meant  the  ruin  of  Mosaism.  God  willed 
I  heir  destruction.  Such  were  Saul's  thoughts,  until  he 
heard  the  protesting  voice  of  Jesus  as  he  approached 
Damascus  to  ravage  His  little  flock.  No  wonder  that 
he  suffered  remorse  to  the  end  of  his  days. 

Saul's  persecution  of  the  Church  was  the  natural 
result  of  his  earlier  training,  of  the  course  to  which  in 
his  youth  he  committed  himself.  The  Galatians  had 
heard  also  "how  proficient  he  was  in  Judaism,  beyond 
many  of  his  kindred  and  age  ;  that  he  was  surpassed 
by  none  in  zeal  for  their  ancestral  traditions."  His 
birlh  (Phil.  iii.  4,  5),  education  (Acts  xxii.  3),  tempera- 
ment, circumstances,  all  combined  to  make  him  a  zealot 
of  the  first  water,  the  pink  and  pattern  of  Jewish 
orthodoxy,  the  rising  hope  of  the  Pharisaic  party,  and 
an  instrument  admirably  fitted  to  crush  the  hated  and 
dangerous  sect  of  the  Nazarenes.  These  facts  go  to 
prove,  not  that  Paul  is  a  traitor  to  his  own  people,  still 
less  that  he  is  a  Pharisee  at  heart,  preaching  Gentile 
liberty  from  interested  motives  ;  but  that  it  must  have 
been  some  extraordinary  occurrence,  quite  out  of  the 
common  run  of  human  influences  and  probabilities,  that 
set  him  on  his  present  course.  What  could  ha' e 
turned  this  furious  Jewish  persecutor  all  at  once  into 
the  champion  of  the  cross  ?  What  indeed  but  the 
revelation  of  Christ  which  he  received  at  the  Daniascus 


64  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


gate?  His  previous  career  up  to  that  hour  had  been 
such  as  to  make  it  impossible  that  he  should  have 
received  his  gospel  through  human  means.  The  chasm 
between  his  Christian  and  pre-Christian  Ufe  had  only 
been  bridged  by  a  supernatural  interposition  of  the 
mercy  of  Christ. 

Our  modern  critics,  however,  think  that  they  know 
Paul  better  than  he  knew  himself.  They  hold  that  the 
problem  raised  by  this  passage  is  capable  of  a  natural 
solution.  Psychological  analysis,  we  are  told,  sets 
the  matter  in  a  different  light.  Saul  of  Tarsus  had  a 
tender  conscience.  Underneath  his  fevered  and  am- 
bitious zeal,  there  lay  in  the  young  persecutor's  heart 
a  profound  misgiving,  a  mortifying  sense  of  his 
failure,  and  the  failure  of  his  people,  to  attain  the 
righteousness  of  the  Law.  The  seventh  chapter  of 
his  Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  a  leaf  taken  out  of  the 
inner  history  of  this  period  of  the  Apostle's  life. 
Through  what  a  stern  discipline  the  Tarsian  youth  had 
passed  in  these  legal  years !  How  his  haughty  spirit 
chafed  and  tortured  itself  under  the  growing  con- 
sciousness of  its  moral  impotence !  The  Law  had 
been  truly  his  iraiha'yw'yo^  (ch.  iii.  24),  a  severe  tutor, 
preparing  him  unconsciously  "  for  Christ."  In  this 
state  of  mind  such  scenes  as  the  maityrdom  of  Stephen 
could  not  but  powerfully  affect  Saul,  in  spite  of  him- 
self. The  bearing  of  the  persecuted  Nazarenes,  the 
words  of  peace  and  forgiveness  that  they  uttered  under 
their  sufftrings,  stirred  questicnings  in  his  breast  not 
always  to  be  silenced.  Self-distrust  and  remorse  were 
secretly  undermining  the  rigour  of  his  Judaic  faith. 
They  acted  like  a  "goad"  (Acts  xxvi.  14),  against 
which  he  "  kicked  in  vain."  He  rode  to  Damascus — a 
long  and  lonely  journey — in  a  state  of  increasing  dis- 


i.  II-I4.]    PAULS  GOSPEL   REVEALED  BY  CHRIST.       65 

quiet  and  mental  conflict.  The  heat  and  exhaustion  of 
the  desert  march,  acting  on  a  nervous  temperament 
naturally  excitable  and  overwrought,  hastened  the  crisis. 
Saul  fell  from  his  horse  in  an  access  of  fever,  or  cata- 
lepsy. His  brain  was  on  fire.  The  convictions  that 
haunted  him  suddenly  took  form  and  voice  in  the  appari- 
tion of  the  glorified  Jesus,  whom  Stephen  in  his  dying 
moments  had  addressed.  From  that  figure  seemed  to 
proceed  the  reproachful  cry  which  the  persecutor's  con- 
science had  in  vain  been  striving  to  make  him  hear.  A 
flash  of  lightning,  or,  if  you  like,  a  sunstroke,  is  readily 
imagined  to  fire  this  train  of  circumstances, — and  the 
explanation  is  complete  !  When,  besides,  M.  Renan  is 
good  enough  to  tell  us  that  he  has  himself  "experienced 
an  attack  of  this  kind  at  Byblos,"  and  "  with  other 
principles  would  certainly  have  taken  the  hallucinations 
he  then  had  for  visions,*'*  what  more  can  we  desire? 
Nay,  does  not  Paul  himself  admit,  in  ver.  16  of  this 
chapter,  that  his  conversion  was  essentially  a  spiritual 
and  subjective  event  ? 

Such  is  the  diagnosis  of  Paul's  conversion  offered  us 
by  rationalism  ;  and  it  is  not  wanting  in  boldness  nor 
in  skill  But  the  corner-stone  on  which  it  rests,  the 
hinge  of  the  whole  theory,  is  imaginary  and  in  fatal 
contradiction  with  the  facts  of  the  case.  Paul  himself 
knows  nothing  of  the  remorse  imputed  to  him  previously 
to  the  vision  of  Jesus.  The  historian  of  the  Acts  knows 
nothing  of  it.  In  a  nature  so  upright  and  conscien- 
tious as  that  of  Saul,  this  misgiving  would  at  least  have 
induced  him  to  desist  from  persecution.  From  first  to 
last  his  testimony  is,  "  I  did  it  ignorantly^  in  unbelief." 
It  was  this  ignorance,   this  absence  of  any  sense  of 


*  Lis  Apdtres,  p.  180,  note  I. 


66  THE  EPISTLE    TO    THE   GALATIANS. 


wrong  in  the  violence  he  used  against  the  followers  of 
Jesr.s,  that,  in  his  view,  accounted  for  his  **  obtain- 
ing mercy"  (i  Tim.  i.  13).  If  impressions  of  an 
opposite  kind  were  previously  struggling  in  his  mind, 
with  such  force  that  on  a  mere  nervous  shock  they  were 
ready  to  precipitate  themselves  in  the  shape  of  an  over- 
mastering hallucination,  changing  instantly  and  for  ever 
the  current  of  his  life,  how  comes  it  that  the  Apostle 
has  told  us  nothing  about  them  ?  That  he  should  have 
forgotten  impressions  so  poignant  and  so  pow^erful,  is 
inconceivable.  And  if  he  has  of  set  purpose  ignored, 
nay,  virtually  denied  this  all-important  fact,  what  be- 
comes of  his  sincerity  ? 

The  Apostle  was  manifestly  innocent  of  any  such 
predisposition  to  Christian  faith  as  the  above  theory 
imputes  to  him.  True,  he  was  conscious  in  those 
Judaistic  days  of  his  failure  to  attain  righteousness, 
of  the  disharmony  existing  between  "  the  law  of  his 
reason"  and  that  which  wrought  "in  his  members." 
His  conviction  of  sin  supplied  the  moral  precondition 
necessary  in  every  case  to  saving  faith  in  Christ.  But 
this  negative  condition  does  not  help  us  in  the  least  to 
explain  the  vision  of  the  glorified  Jesus.  By  no  psycho- 
logical process  whatever  could  the  experience  of  Rom. 
vii.  7 — 24  be  made  to  project  itself  in  such  an  appari- 
tion. With  all  his  mysticism  and  emotional  suscepti- 
bility, Paul's  mind  was  essentially  sane  and  critical. 
To  call  him  epileptic  is  a  calumny.  No  man  so  diseased 
could  have  gone  through  the  Apostle's  labours,  or 
written  these  Epistles.  His  discussion  of  the  subject 
of  supernatural  gifts,  in  I  Cor.  xii.  and  xiv.,  is  a 
model  of  shrewdness  and  good  sense.  He  had  ex- 
perience of  trances  and  ecstatic  visions ;  and  he  knew 
perhaps  as  well  as  M.  Renan,  how  to  distinguish  then. 


i.  II-I4.]    PAUL'S  GOSPEL   REVEALED  BY  CHRIST,      67 


from  objective  realities.*  The  manner  in  which  he 
speaks  of  this  appearance  allows  of  no  reasonable  doubt 
as  to  the  Apostle's  full  persuasion  that  "in  sober 
certainty  of  waking  sense "  he  had  seen  Jesus  our 
Lord. 

It  was  this  sensible  and  outward  revelation  that  led 
to  the  inward  revelation  of  the  Redeemer  to  his  soul,  of 
which  Paul  goes  on  to  speak  in  ver.  16.  Without  the 
latter  the  former  would  have  been  purposeless  and 
useless.  The  objective  vision  could  only  have  revealed 
a  "  Christ  after  the  flesh,"  had  it  not  been  the  means  of 
opening  Saul's  closed  heart  to  the  influence  of  the  Spirit 
of  Christ.  It  was  the  means  to  this,  and  in  the  given 
circumstances  the  indispensable  means. 

To  a  history  that  "knows  no  miracles,'"  the  Apostle 
Paul  must  remain  an  enigma.  His  faith  in  the  crucified 
Jesus  is  equally  bafQing  to  naturalism  with  that  of  the 
first  disciples,  who  had  laid  Him  in  the  grave.  When 
the  Apostle  argues  that  his  antecedent  relations  to 
Christianity  were  such  as  to  preclude  his  conversion 
having  come  about  by  natural  human  means,  we  are 
bound  to  admit  both  the  sincerity  and  the  conclusive- 
ness gf  his  appeal. 

•  I  Cor.  xiv.  18;  2  Cor.  xii.  1—6  ;  Aclsxvi.  9  ;  xviii.  8,  9;  xxii.  17,  18. 


CHAPTER    V. 

PAULS  DIVINE   COMMISSION. 

*'But  when  it  was  the  good  pleasure  of  God,  who  separated  me,  even 
from  my  mother's  womb,  and  called  me  through  His  grace,  to  reveal 
His  Son  in  me,  that  I  miglit  preach  Him  among  the  Gentiles  ;  imme- 
diately I  conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood  :  neither  went  I  up  to 
Jerusalem  to  them  which  were  apostles  before  me  :  but  I  went  away 
into  Arabia;  and  again  I  returned  unto  Damascus." — Gal.  i.  15 — 17, 

JT  pleased  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me :  this  is  after 
"*  all  the  essential  matter  in  Paul's  conversion,  as  in 
that  of  every  Christian.  The  outward  manifestation  of 
Jesus  Christ  served  in  his  case  to  bring  about  this 
result,  and  was  necessary  to  qualify  him  for  his 
extraordinary  vocation.  But  of  itself  the  supernatural 
vision  had  no  redeeming  virtue,  and  gave  Saul  of 
Tarsus  no  message  of  salvation  for  the  world.  Its 
glory  blinded  and  prostrated  the  persecutor ;  his  heart 
might  notwithstanding  have  remained  rebellious  and 
unchanged.  "  I  am  Jesus,"  said  the  heavenly  Form, — 
**  Go,  and  it  shall  bt-  told  thee  what  thou  shalt  do  "  ; — 
that  was  all !  And  that  was  not  salvation.  "  Even 
though  one  rose  from  the  dead,"  still  it  is  possible  not 
to  believe.  And  faith  is  possible  in  its  highest  degree, 
and  is  exercised  to-day  by  multitudes,  with  no  celestial 
light  to  illumine,  no  audible  voice  from  beyond  the 
grave  to  awaken.     The  sixteenth  verse  gives   us   the 

inward  counterpart  of  that  exterior  revelation  in  wh  ch 


1 5- 1 7-]  PAULS  DIVINE   COMMISSION.  69 


Paul's  knowledge  of  Christ  had  its  beginning, — but 
only  its  beginning. 

The  Apostle  does  not  surely  mean  by  "  in  me,"  in 
my  case,  through  me  {to  others).  This  gives  a  sense 
true  in  itself,  and  expressed  by  Paul  elsewhere  (ver.  24 ; 
I  Tim.  i.  16),  but  unsuitable  to  the  word  **  reveal,"  and 
out  of  place  at  this  point  of  the  narrative.  In  the  next 
clause — "  that  I  might  preach  Him  among  the  Gentiles  " 
— we  learn  what  was  to  be  the  issue  of  this  revelation 
for  the  world.  But  in  the  first  place  it  was  a  Divine 
certainty  within  the  breast  of  Paul  himself.  His  Gentile 
Apostleship  rested  upon  the  most  assured  basis  of 
inward  conviction,  upon  a  spiritual  apprehension  of  the 
Redeemer's  person.  He  says,  laying  emphasis  on  the 
last  two  words,  "  to  reveal  His  Son  within  me."  So 
Chrysostom  :  Why  did  he  not  say  to  me,  but  in  me  ? 
Showing  that  not  by  v/ords  alone  he  learned  the  things 
concerning  faith  ;  but  that  he  was  also  filled  with  the 
abundance  of  the  Spirit,  the  revelation  shining  through 
his  very  soul;  and  that  he  had  Christ  speaking  in  himself. 

I.  TJie  substance  of  Paul's  gospel  was,  therefore ^  given 
him  by  the  unveiling  of  the  Redeemer  to  his  heart. 

The  "revelation"  of  ver.  16  takes  up  and  completes 
that  of  ver.  12.  The  dazzling  appearance  of  Christ 
before  his  eyes  and  the  summons  of  His  voice  addressed 
to  Saul's  bodily  ears  formed  the  special  mode  in  which 
it  pleased  God  to  *'call  him  by  His  grace."  But 
"  whom  He  called.  He  also  justified."  In  this  further 
act  of  grace  salvation  is  first  personally  realised,  and 
the  gospel  becomes  the  man's  individual  possession. 
This  experience  ensued  upon  the  acceptance  of  the  fact 
that  the  crucified  Jesus  was  the  Christ.  But  this  was 
by  no  means  all.  As  the  revelation  penetrated  further 
into    the    Apostle's    soul,  he    began    to   apprehend  its 


70  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CALATIANS. 


deeper  significance.  He  knew  already  that  the 
Nazarene  had  claimed  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  and  on 
that  ground  had  been  sentenced  to  death  by  the 
Sanhedrim.  His  resurrection,  now  a  demonstrated 
fact,  showed  that  this  awful  claim,  instead  of  being 
condemned,  was  acknowledged  by  God  Himself.  The 
celestial  majesty  in  which  He  appeared,  the  sublime 
authority  with  which  He  spoke,  witnessed  to  His 
Divinity.  To  Paul  equally  with  the  first  Apostles,  He 
"was  declared  Son  of  God  in  power,  by  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead."  But  this  persuasion  was  borne 
in  upon  him  in  his  after  reflections,  and  could  not 
be  adequately  realised  in  the  first  shock  of  his  great 
discovery.  The  language  of  this  verse  throws  no  sort 
of  suspicion  on  the  reality  of  the  vision  before  Damascus. 
Quite  the  opposite.  The  inward  presupposes  the 
outward.  Understanding  follows  sight.  The  subjective 
illumination,  the  inward  conviction  of  Christ's  Divinity, 
in  Paul's  case  as  in  that  of  the  first  disciples,  was 
brought  about  by  the  appearance  of  the  risen,  Divine 
Jesus.  That  appearance  furnishes  in  both  instances 
the  explanation  of  the  astounding  change  that  took 
place  in  the  men.  The  heart  full  of  blasphemy  against 
His  name  has  learnt  to  own  Him  as  "  the  Son  of  God, 
who  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for  me."  Through 
the  bodily  eyes  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  the  revelation  of 
Jesus  Christ  had  entered  and  transformed  his  spirit. 

Of  this  interior  revelation  the  Holy  Spirit^  according 
to  the  Apostle's  doctrine,  had  been  the  organ.  The 
Lord  on  first  meeting  the  gathered  Apostles  after  His 
resurrection  "  breathed  upon  them,  saying,  Receive  ye 
the  Holy  Ghost"  (John  xx.  22).  This  influence  was 
in  truth  "the  power  of  His  resurrection";  it  was  the 
inspiring  breath  of  the  new  life  of  humanity  issuing 


i.  1 5- 1 7- ]  PA  ULS  DI VINE   COMMISSION.  7 1 

from  the  open  grave  of  Christ.  The  baptism  of 
Pentecost,  with  its  *'  mighty  rushing  wind,"  was  but 
the  fuller  effusion  of  the  power  whose  earnest  the 
Church  received  in  that  gentle  breathing  of  peace  on 
the  day  of  the  resurrection.  By  His  Spirit  Christ 
made  Himself  a  dwelling  in  the  hearts  of  His  disciples, 
raised  at  last  to  a  true  apprehension  of  His  nature.  All 
this  was  recapitulated  in  the  experience  of  Paul.  In 
his  case  the  common  experience  was  the  more  sharply 
defined  because  of  the  suddenness  of  his  conversion, 
and  the  startling  effect  with  which  this  new  conscious^ 
ness  projected  itself  upon  the  background  of  his  earlier 
Pharisaic  life.  Paul  had  his  Resurrection-vision  on 
the  road  to  Damascus.  He  received  his  Pentecostal 
baptism  in  the  days  that  followed. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  fix  the  precise  occasion  of  the 
second  revelation,  or  to  connect  it  specifically  with  the 
visit  of  Ananias  to  Saul  in  Damascus,  much  less  with 
his  later  **  ecstasy"  in  the  temple  (Acts  ix.  10 — 19; 
xxii.  12 — 21).  When  Ananias,  sent  by  Christ,  brought 
him  the  assurance  of  forgiveness  from  the  injured 
Church,  and  bade  him  "  recover  his  sight,  and  be  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,"  this  message  greatly  comforted 
his  heart,  and  pointed  out  to  him  more  clearly  the 
way  of  salvation  along  which  he  was  groping.  But 
it  is  the  office  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  reveal  the  Son 
of  God  ;  so  Paul  teaches  everywhere  in  his  Epistles, 
taught  first  by  his  own  experience.  Not  from  Ananias, 
nor  from  any  man  had  he  received  this  knowledge  ; 
God  revealed  His  Son  in  the  soul  of  the  Apostle — 
"  sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  his  heart " 
(ch.  iv.  6).  The  language  of  2  Cor.  iii.  12 — iv.  6 
is  the  best  commentary  on  this  verse.  A  veil  rested 
on  the  heart  of  Saul  the  Pharisee.     He  read  the  Old 


72  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATJANS. 


Covenant  only  in  the  condemning  letter.  Not  yet  did 
he  know  "the  Lord"  who  is  ^'the  spirit."  This  veil 
was  done  away  in  Christ.  ''The  glory  of  the  Lord" 
that  burst  upon  him  in  his  Damascus  journey,  rent  it 
once  and  for  ever  from  his  eyes.  God,  the  Light-giver, 
had  "shined  in  his  heart,  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ." 
Such  was  the  further  scope  of  the  revelation  which 
effected  Paul's  conversion.  As  he  writes  afterwards 
to  Ephesus,  ''  the  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Father  of  glory,  had  given  him  a  spirit  of  wisdom  and 
revelation  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ ;  eyes  of  the 
heart  enlightened  to  know  the  hope  of  His  calling, 
and  His  exceeding  power  to  usward,  according  to  that 
He  wrought  in  Christ  when  he  raised  Him  from  the 
dead,  and  set  Him  at  His  own  right  hand  "  (Eph.  i. 
17 — 21).  In  these  words  we  hear  an  echo  of  the 
thoughts  that  passed  through  the  Apostle's  mind  when 
first  "  it  pleased  God  in  him  to  reveal  His  Son." 

n.  In  the  light  of  this  inner  revelation  Paul  received 
his  Gentile  mission. 

He  speedily  perceived  that  this  was  the  purpose 
with  which  the  revelation  was  made :  ''  that  I  should 
preach  Him  among  the  Gentiles."  The  three  accounts 
of  his  conversion  furnished  by  the  Acts  witness  to 
the  same  effect.  Whether  we  should  suppose  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  gave  Saul  this  commission  directly,  at  His 
first  appearance,  as  seems  to  be  implied  in  Acts  xxvi., 
or  infer  from  the  more  detailed  narrative  of  chapters 
ix.  and  xxii.,  that  the  announcement  was  sent  by 
Ananias  and  afterwards  more  urgently  repeated  in 
the  vision  at  the  Temple,  in  either  case  the  fact  remains 
the  same  ;  from  the  beginning  Paul  knew  that  he  was 
appointed  to  be  Christ's  witness  to  the  Gentiles.  This 
deitination    was    included    in    the    Divine    call    which 


i.  15-17.]  PAULS  DIVINE   COMMISSION,  73 

brought  him  to  faith  in  Jesus.  His  Judaic  prejudices 
were  swept  away.  He  was  ready  to  embrace  the 
universalism  of  the  Gospel.  With  his  fine  logical  in- 
stinct, sharpened  by  hatred,  he  had  while  yet  a  Pharisee 
discerned  more  clearly  than  many  Jewish  Christians  the 
bearing  of  the  doctrine  of  the  cross  upon  the  legal 
system.  He  saw  that  the  struggle  was  one  of  life  and 
death.  The  vehemence  with  which  he  flung  himself  into 
the  contest  was  due  to  this  perception.  But  it  followed 
from  this,  that,  once  convinced  of  the  Messiahship  of 
Jesus,  Paul's  faith  at  a  bound  overleaped  all  Jewish 
barriers.  "Judaism — or  the  religion  of  the  Crucified." 
was  the  alternative  with  which  his  stern  logic  pursued 
the  Nazarenes.  Judaism  and  Christianity — this  was 
a  compromise  intolerable  to  his  nature.  Before  Saul's 
conversion  he  had  left  that  halting-place  behind  ;  he 
apprehended  alread}^,  in  some  sense,  the  truth  up  to 
\vhich  the  elder  Apostles  had  to  be  educated,  that  '*  in 
Christ  Jesus  there  is  neither  Greek  nor  Jew."  He  passed 
at  a  step  from  the  one  camp  to  the  other.  In  this 
there  was  consistency.  The  enlightened,  conscientious 
persecutor,  who  had  debated  with  Stephen  and  helped 
to  stone  him,  was  sure,  if  he  became  a  Christian,  to 
become  a  Christian  of  Stephen's  school.  When  he 
entered  the  Church,  Paul  left  the  Synagogue.  He  was 
ripe  for  his  world-wide  commission.  There  was  no 
surprise,  no  unpreparedness  in  his  mind  when  the 
charge  was  given  him,  "Go;  for  I  will  send  thee  far 
hence  among  the  Gentiles." 

In  the  Apostle's  view,  his  personal  salvation  and 
that  of  the  race  were  objects  united  from  the  first.  Not 
as  a  privileged  Jew^,  but  as  a  sinful  man,  the  Divine 
grace  had  found  him  out.  The  righteousness  of  God 
was  revealed  to  him  on  terms  which  brought  it  within 


74  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


the  reach  of  every  human  being.  The  Son  of  God 
whom  he  now  beheld  was  a  personage  vastly  greater 
than  his  national  Messiah,  the  "  Christ  after  the  flesh" 
of  his  Jewish  dream, s,  and  His  gospel  was  correspond- 
ingly loftier  and  larger  in  its  scope.  *'God  was  in 
Christ,  reconciling,"  not  a  nation,  but  "a  world  unto 
Himself."  The  "grace"  conferred  on  him  was  given 
that  he  might  "preach  among  the  Gentiles  Christ's  un- 
searchable riches,  and  make  all  men  see  the  mystery" 
of  the  counsel  of  redeeming  love  (Eph.  iii.  I — ii).  It 
was  the  world's  redemption  of  which  Paul  partook  ;  and 
it  was  his  business  to  let  the  world  know  it.  He  had 
fathomed  the  depths  of  sin  and  self-despair ;  he  had 
tasted  the  uttermost  of  pardoning  grace.  God  and  the 
world  met  in  his  single  soul,  and  were  reconciled.  He 
felt  from  the  first  what  he  expresses  in  his  latest  Epistles, 
that  "  the  grace  of  God  which  appeared  "  to  him,  was 
"for  the  salvation  of  all  men"  (Tit.  ii.  ii).  "Faith- 
ful is  the  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that 
Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of 
w^hom  I  am  chief"  (i  Tim.  i.  15).  The  same  revela- 
tion that  made  Paul  a  Christian,  made  him  the  Apostle 
of  mankind. 

III.  For  this  vocation  the  Apostle  had  been  destined  by 
God  from  the  beginning.  "  It  pleased  God  to  do  this," 
he  says,  "  who  had  marked  me  out  from  my  mother's 
womb,  and  called  me  by  His  grace." 

While  "  Saul  was  yet  breathing  out  threatening  and 
slaughter"  against  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  how  difierent 
a  future  was  being  prepared  for  him  !  How  little  can 
we  forecast  the  issue  of  our  own  plans,  or  of  those  we 
form  for  others.  His  Hebrew  birth,  his  rabbinical 
proficiency,  the  thoroughness  with  which  he  had 
mastered  the  tenets  of  Legalism,  had  fitted  him  like  no 


i.  iS-i;.]  PAULS  DIVINE   COMMISSION.  75 

other  to  be  the  bearer  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles. 
This  Epistle  proves  the  fact.  Only  a  graduate  of  the 
best  Jewish  schools  could  have  written  it.  Paul's 
master,  Gamalitl,  if  he  had  read  the  letter,  must  per- 
force have  been  proud  of  his  scholar ;  he  would  have 
feared  more  than  ever  that  those  who  opposed  the 
Nazarene  might  "  haply  be  found  fighting  against 
God."  The  Apostle  foils  the  Judaists  with  their  own 
weapons.  He  knows  every  inch  of  the  ground  on 
which  the  battle  is  waged.  At  the  same  time,  he 
was  a  born  Hellenist  and  a  citizen  of  the  Empire, 
native  "  of  no  mean  city."  Tarsus,  his  birthplace, 
was  the  capital  of  an  important  Roman  province,  and 
a  centre  of  Greek  culture  and  refinement.  In  spite  of 
the  Hebraic  conservatism  of  Saul's  family,  the  genial 
atmosphere  of  such  a  town  could  not  but  affect  the 
early  development  of  so  sensitive  a  nature.  He  had 
sufficient  tincture  of  Greek  letters  and  conversance 
with  Roman  law  to  make  him  a  true  cosmopolitan, 
qualified  to  be  "  all  things  to  all  men."  He  presents 
an  admirable  example  of  that  versatility  and  suppleness 
of  genius  which  have  distinguished  for  so  many  ages 
the  sons  of  Jacob,  and  enable  them  to  find  a  home  and 
a  market  for  their  talents  in  every  quarter  of  the  world. 
Paul  was  "  a  chosen  vessel,  to  bear  the  name  of  Jesus 
before  Gentiles  and  kings,  and  the  sons  of  Israel." 

But  his  mission  was  concealed  till  the  appointed 
hour.  Thinking  of  his  personal  election,  he  reminds 
himself  of  the  words  spoken  to  Jeremiah  touching  his 
prophetic  call.  "  Before  I  formed  thee  in  the  belly  I 
knew  thee  ;  and  before  thou  earnest  out  of  the  womb 
I  sanctified  thee.  I  appointed  thee  a  prophet  unto  the 
nations  "  (Jer.  i.  5).  Or  like  the  Servant  of  the  Lord 
in    Isaiah  he  might  say,    **  The   Lord   hath   called  me 


76  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALA7TANS. 

from  the  womb ;  from  the  bowels  of  my  mother  hath 
He  made  mention  of  my  name.  And  He  hath  made 
my  mouth  like  a  sharp  sword,  in  the  shadow  of  His 
hand  hath  He  hid  me ;  and  He  hath  made  me  a 
polished  shaft,  in  His  quiver  hath  He  kept  me  close  " 
(Isa.  xlix.  I,  2).  This  belief  in  a  fore-ordaining  Pro- 
vidence, preparing  in  secret  its  chosen  instruments,  so 
deeply  rooted  in  the  Old  Testament  faith,  was  not  want- 
ing to  Paul.  His  career  is  a  signal  illustration  of  its 
truth.  He  applies  it,  in  his  doctrine  of  Election,  to  the 
history  of  every  child  of  grace.  "  Whom  He  foreknew. 
He  did  predestinate.  Whom  He  did  predestinate. 
He  called."  Once  more  we  see  how  the  Apostle's 
theology  was  moulded  by  his  experience. 

The  manner  in  which  Saul  of  Tarsus  had  been  pre- 
pared all  his  life  long  for  the  service  of  Christ,  magnified 
to  his  eyes  the  sovereign  grace  of  God.  ^^  He  called 
me  through  His  graced  The  call  came  at  precisely  the 
fit  time ;  it  came  at  a  time  and  in  a  manner  calculated 
to  display  the  Divine  compassion  in  the  highest  possible 
degree.  This  lesson  Paul  could  never  forget.  To  the 
last  he  dwells  upon  it  with  deep  emotion.  "  In  me," 
he  writes  to  Timothy,  ^'  Jesus  Christ  first  showed  forth 
all  His  longsuffering.  I  was  a  blasphemer,  a  persecutor, 
insolent  and  injurious;  but  I  obtained  mercy"  (i  Tim. 
i.  1 3 — 16).  He  was  so  dealt  with  from  the  beginning,  he 
had  been  called  to  the  knowledge  of  Christ  under  such 
circumstances  that  he  felt  he  had  a  right  to  say,  above 
other  men,  ''  By  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am." 
The  predestination  under  which  his  life  was  con- 
ducted "from  his  mother's  womb,"  had  for  its  chief 
purpose,  to  exhibit  God's  mercy  to  mankind,  ''  that  in 
the  ages  to  come  He  might  show  the  exceeding  riches 
of  His  grace  in  kindness  toward  us  in  Christ  Jesus " 


1.  15-17-]  PAULS  DIVINE   COMMISSION.  77 

(Eph.  ii.  7).  To  this  purpose,  so  soon  as  he  discerned 
it,  he  humbly  yielded  himself.  The  Son  of  God,  whose 
followers  he  had  hunted  to  death,  whom  in  his  madness 
he  would  have  crucified  afresh,  had  appeared  to  him  to 
save  and  to  forgive.  The  grace  of  it,  the  infinite  kind- 
ness and  compassion  such  an  act  revealed  in  the  Divine 
nature,  excited  new  wonder  in  the  Apostle's  soul  till 
his  latest  hour.  Henceforth  he  was  the  bondman  of 
grace,  the  celebrant  of  grace.  His  life  was  one  act 
of  thanksgiving  "to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  His 
grace  I " 

IV.  From  Jesus  Christ  in  person  Paul  had  received 
his  knowledge  of  the  Gospel,  without  human  interven- 
tion. In  the  revelation  of  Christ  to  his  soul  he 
possessed  the  substance  of  the  truth  he  was  afterwards 
to  teach ;  and  with  the  revelation  there  came  the  com- 
mission to  proclaim  it  to  all  men.  His  gospel-message 
was  in  its  essence  complete ;  the  Apostleship  was 
already  his.  Such  are  the  assertions  the  Apostle  makes 
in  reply  to  his  gainsayers.  And  he  goes  on  to  show 
that  the  course  he  took  after  his  conversion  sustains  these 
lofty  claims:  "  When  God  had  been  pleased  to  reveal 
His  Son  in  me,  immediately  (right  from  the  first) 
I  took  no  counsel  with  flesh  and  blood.  I  avoided 
repairing  to  Jerusalem,  to  the  elder  Apostles ;  I  went 
away  into  Arabia,  and  back  again  to  Damascus.  It  was 
three  years  before  I  set  foot  in  Jerusalem." 

If  that  were  so,  how  could  Paul  have  received  his 
doctrine  or  his  commission  from  the  Church  of  Jeru- 
salem, as  his  traducers  alleged  ?  He  acted  from  the 
outset  under  the  sense  of  a  unique  Divine  call,  that 
allowed  of  no  human  validation  or  supplement.  Had 
the  case  been  otherwise,  had  Paul  come  to  his  know- 
ledge of  Christ  by  ordinary  channels,  his  first  impulse 


78  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 


would  have  been  to  go  up  to  the  mother  city  to  report 
himself  there,  and  to  gain  further  instruction.  Above 
all,  if  he  intended  to  be  a  minister  of  Christ,  it  would 
have  been  proper  to  secure  the  approval  of  the  Twelve, 
and  to  be  accredited  from  Jerusalem.  This  was  the 
course  which  "  flesh  and  blood  "  dictated,  which  Saul's 
new  friends  at  Damascus  probably  urged  upon  him. 
It  was  insinuated  that  he  had  actually  proceeded  in 
this  way,  and  put  himself  under  the  direction  of  Peter 
and  the  Judean  Church.  But  he  says,  "  I  did  nothing 
of  the  sort.  I  kept  clear  of  Jerusalem  for  three  years  ; 
and  then  I  only  went  there  to  make  private  acquain- 
tance with  Peter,  and  stayed  in  the  city  but  a  fortnight." 
Although  Paul  did  not  for  many  years  make  public 
claim  to  rank  with  the  Twelve,  from  the  commencement 
he  acted  in  conscious  independence  of  them.  He  calls 
them  ''  Apostles  bejore  mej^  by  this  phrase  assuming 
the  matter  in  dispute.  He  tacitly  asserts  his  equality 
in  official  status  with  the  Apostles  of  Jesus,  assigning 
to  the  others  precedence  only  in  point  of  time.  And 
he  speaks  of  this  equality  in  terms  implying  that  it 
was  already  present  to  his  mind  at  this  former  period. 
Under  this  conviction  he  held  aloof  from  human  guidance 
and  approbation.  Instead  of  ''  going  up  to  Jerusalem," 
the  centre  of  publicity,  the  head-quarters  of  the  rising 
Church,   Paul  "went  off  into  Arabia." 

There  were,  no  doubt,  other  reasons  for  this  step. 
Why  did  he  choose  Arabia  for  his  sojourn  ?  and  what, 
pray,  was  he  doing  there  ?  The  Apostle  leaves  us  to  our 
own  conjectures.  Solitude,  we  imagine,  was  his  principal 
object.  His  Arabian  retreat  reminds  us  of  the  Arabian 
exile  of  Moses,  of  the  wilderness  discipline  of  John  the 
Baptist,  and  the  "  forty  days  "  of  Jesus  in  the  wilder- 
ness.    In  each  of  these  instances,  the  desert  retirement 


i.  iS-i;.]  PAULS  DIVINE  COMMISSION.  79 

followed  upon  a  great  inward  crisis,  and  was  prepara- 
tory to  the  entrance  of  the  Lord's  servant  on  his 
mission  to  the  world.  Elijah,  at  a  later  period  of  his 
course,  sought  the  wilderness  under  motives  not  dis- 
similar. After  such  a  convulsion  as  Paul  had  passed 
through,  with  a  whole  world  of  new  ideas  and  emotions 
pouring  in  upon  him,  he  felt  that  he  must  be  alone ;  he 
must  get  away  from  the  voices  of  men.  There  are 
such  times  in  the  history  of  every  earnest  soul.  In 
the  silence  of  the  Arabian  desert,  wandering  amid  the 
grandest  scenes  of  ancient  revelation,  and  communing 
in  stillness  with  God  and  with  his  own  heart,  the  young 
Apostle  will  think  out  the  questions  that  press  upon 
him  ;  he  wuU  be  able  to  take  a  calmer  survey  of  the 
new  world  into  which  he  has  been  ushered,  and  will 
learn  to  see  clearly  and  walk  steadily  in  the  heavenly 
light  that  at  first  bewildered  him.  So  "  the  Spirit 
immediately  driveth  him  out  into  the  wilderness."  In 
Arabia  one  confers,  not  with  flesh  and  blood,  but  with 
the  mountains  and  with  God.  From  Arabia  Saul 
returned  in  possession  of  himself,  and  of  his  gospel. 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  omits  this  Arabian  episode 
(Acts  ix.  19 — 25).  But  for  what  Paul  tells  us  here,  we 
should  have  gathered  that  he  began  at  once  after  his 
baptism  to  preach  Christ  in  Damascus,  his  preaching 
after  no  long  time*  exciting  Jewish  enmity  to  such  a 
pitch  that  his  life  was  imperilled,  and  the  Christian 
brethren  compelled  him  to  seek  safety  by  flight  to 
Jerusalem.  The  reader  of  Luke  is  certainly  surprised 
to    find  a   period    of  three   years,t   with   a  prolonged 

•  ijfi^pai  iKavai,  a  considerable,  time.     The  expression  is  indefinite. 

t  Ver.  18  :  that  is,  parts  of  "  three  years,"  according  to  ancient 
reckoning— say  from  36  to  38  A.D.,  possibly  less  than  two  in  actual 
duration. 


8o  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS 

residence  in  Arabia,  interpolated  between  Paul's  con- 
version and  his  reception  in  Jerusalem.  Luke's  silence, 
we  judge,  is  intentional.  The  Arabian  retreat  formed 
no  part  of  the  Apostle's  public  life,  and  had  no  place  in 
the  narrative  of  the  Acts.  Paul  only  mentions  it  here 
in  the  briefest  terms,  and  because  the  reference  was 
necessary  to  put  his  relations  to  the  first  Apostles  in 
their  proper  light.  For  the  time  the  converted  Saul 
had  dropped  out  of  sight ;  and  the  historian  of  the  Acts 
respects  his  privacy. 

The  place  of  the  Arabian  journey  seems  to  us  to  lie 
between  vv.  2i  and  22  of  Acts  ix.  That  passage  gives 
a  twofold  description  of  Paul's  preaching  in  Damascus, 
in  its  earlier  and  later  stages,  v/ith  a  double  note  of 
time  (vv.  19  and  23).  Saul's  first  testimony,  taking  place 
"  straightway,"  was,  one  would  presume,  a  mere  declara- 
tion of  faith  in  Jesus  :  "  In  the  synagogues  he  proclaimed 
Jesus,  (saying)  that  He  is  the  Son  of  God  "  (R.V.), 
language  in  striking  harmony  with  that  of  the  Apostle 
in  the  text  (vv.  12,  16).  Naturally  this  recantation 
caused  extreme  astonishment  in  Damascus,  where  Saul's 
reputation  was  well-known  both  to  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians, and  his  arrival  was  expected  in  the  character  of 
Jewish  inquisitor-in-chief.  Ver.  22  presents  a  different 
situation.  Paul  is  now  preaching  in  his  estabhshed 
and  characteristic  style ;  as  we  read  it,  we  might  fancy 
we  hear  him  debating  in  the  synagogues  of  Pisidian 
Antioch  or  Corinth  or  Thessalonica  :  ^'  He  was  con- 
founding the  Jews,  pr-oving  that  this  is  the  Christ." 
Neither  Saul  himself  nor  his  Jewish  hearers  in  the 
first  days  after  his  conversion  would  be  in  the  mood 
for  the  sustained  argumentation  and  Scriptural  dialectic 
thus  described.  The  explanation  of  the  change  lies 
behind    the   opening  words  of  the  verse:   ''But  SauJ 


i.  I5-I9-]  PAULS  DIVINE   COMMISSION.  8l 

increased  in  strength  " — a  growth  due  not  only  to  the 
prolonged  opposition  he  had  to  encounter,  but  still 
more,  as  we  conjecture  from  this  hint  of  the  Apostle, 
to  the  period  of  rest  and  reflection  which  he  enjoyed 
in  his  Arabian  seclusion.  The  two  marks  of  time 
given  us  in  vv.  19  and  23  of  Luke's  narrative,  may  be 
fairly  distinguished  from  each  other — '^  certain  days," 
and  ^^ sufficient  days"  (or  "a  considerable  time") — 
as  denoting  a  briefer  and  a  longer  season  respectively : 
the  former  so  short  that  the  excitement  caused  by 
Saul's  declaration  of  his  new  faith  had  not  yet  subsided 
when  he  withdrew  from  the  city  into  the  desert — in 
which  case  Luke's  note  of  time  does  not  really  conflict 
with  Paul's  "  immediately " ;  the  latter  aff'()rding  a 
lapse  of  time  sufficient  for  Saul  to  develope  his  argu- 
ment for  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus,  and  to  provoke  the 
Jews,  worsted  in  logic,  to  resort  to  other  weapons. 
From  Luke's  point  of  view  the  sojourn  in  Arabia,  how- 
ever extended,  was  simply  an  incident,  of  no  public 
importance,  in  Paul's  early  ministry  in  Damascus. 

The  disappearance  of  Saul  during  this  interval  helps 
however,  as  we  think,  to  explain  a  subsequent  statement 
in  Luke's  narrative  that  is  certainly  perplexing  (Acts 
ix.  26,  27).  When  Saul,  after  his  escape  from  Damas- 
cus, *'  was  come  to  Jerusalem,"  and  **  essayed  to  join 
himself  to  the  disciples,"  they,  we  are  told,  "  were  all 
afraid  of  him,  not  believing  that  he  was  a  disciple  ! " 
For  while  the  Church  at  Jerusalem  had  doubtless  heard 
at  the  time  of  Saul's  marvellous  conversion  three  years 
before,  his  long  retirement  and  avoidance  of  Jerusalem 
threw  an  air  of  mystery  and  suspicion  about  his  proceed- 
ings, and  revived  the  fears  of  the  Judean  brethren  ;  and 
his  reappearance  created  a  panic.  In  consequence  of 
his  sudden  departure  from  Damascus,  it  is  likely  that 

6 


S2  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

no  public  report  had  as  yet  reached  Judaea  of  Saul's 
return  to  that  city  and  his  renewed  ministry  there. 
Barnabas  now  came  forward  to  act  as  sponsor  for  the 
suspected  convert.  What  induced  him  to  do  this — 
whether  it  was  that  his  largeness  of  heart  enabled  him 
to  read  Saul's  character  better  than  others,  or  whether 
he  had  some  earlier  private  acquaintance  with  the 
Tarsian — we  cannot  tell.  The  account  that  Barnabas 
was  able  to  give  of  his  friend's  conversion  and  of  his 
bold  confession  in  Damascus,  won  for  Paul  the  place 
in  the  confidence  of  Peter  and  the  leaders  of  the  Church 
at  Jerusalem  which  he  never  afterwards  lost. 

The  two  narratives — the  history  of  Luke  and  the 
letter  of  Paul — relate  the  same  series  of  events,  but 
from  almost  opposite  standpoints.  Luke  dwells  upon 
Paiifs  connection  with  the  Church  at  Jerusalem  and 
its  Apostles.  Paul  is  maintaining  his  independence  of 
them.  There  is  no  contradiction  ;  but  there  is  just  such 
discrepancy  as  will  arise  where  two  honest  and  compet- 
ent witnesses  are  relating  identical  facts  in  a  different 
connection. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

PAUL    AND    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHURCH. 

"The  nafter  three  years  I  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  visit  Cephas,  and 
tarried  with  him  fifteen  days.  But  other  of  the  apostles  saw  I  none, 
but  only  James  the  Lord's  brother.  Now  touching  the  things  which 
I  write  unto  you,  behold,  before  God,  I  lie  not.  Then  I  came  into  the 
regions  of  Syria  and  Cilicia  And  I  was  still  unknown  by  face  unto 
the  churches  of  Judcea  which  were  in  Christ  :  but  they  only  heard  say. 
He  that  once  persecuted  us  now  preacheth  the  faith  of  which  he  once 
made  havock ;  and  they  glorified  God  in  me." — Gal.  i.  18—24. 

FOR  the  first  two  years  of  his  Christian  Hfe,  Paul 
held  no  intercourse  whatever  with  the  Church 
at  Jerusalem  and  its  chiefs.  His  relation  with  them  was 
commenced  by  the  visit  he  paid  to  Peter  in  the  third  year 
after  his  conversion.  And  that  relation  was  more  pre- 
cisely determined  and  made  public  when,  after  success- 
fully prosecuting  for  fourteen  years  his  mission  to  the 
heathen,  the  Apostle  again  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to 
defend  the  liberty  of  the  Gentile  Church  (ch.  ii.  I  — 10). 
A  clear  understanding  of  this  course  of  events  was 
essential  to  the  vindication  of  Paul's  position  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Galatians.  The  ''troublers"  told  them  that 
Paul's  doctrine  was  not  that  of  the  mother  Church; 
that  his  knowledge  of  the  gospel  and  authority  to 
preach  it  came  from  the  elder  Apostles,  with  whom 
since  his  attack  upon  Peter  at  Antioch  he  was  at  open 
variance.  They  themselves  had  come  down  from 
Judaea  on  purpose  to  set  his  pretensions  in  their  true 


84  TIJE  EPISTLE    TO    THE   GALATJANS, 

light,  and  to  teach  the  Gentiles  the  way  of  the  Lord 
more  perfectly. 

Modern  rationalism  has  espoused  the  cause  of  these 
'' deceitful  workers"  (2  Cor.  xi.  13 — 15).  It  endea- 
vours to  rehabilitate  the  Judaistic  party.  The  ''criti- 
cal "  school  maintain  that  the  opposition  of  the 
Circumcisionists  to  the  Apostle  Paul  was  perfectly 
legitimate.  They  hold  that  the  "  pseud-apostles "  of 
Corinth,  the  ** certain  from  James,"  the  ''troublers"  and 
**  false  brethren  privily  brought  in  "  of  this  Epistle,  did 
in  truth  represent,  as  they  claimed  to  do,  the  principles 
of  the  Jewish  Christian  Church ;  and  that  there  was  a 
radical  divergence  between  the  Pauline  and  Petrine 
gospels,  of  which  the  two  Apostles  were  fully  aware 
from  the  time  of  their  encounter  at  Antioch.  However 
Paul  may  have  wished  to  disguise  the  fact  to  himself, 
the  teaching  of  the  Twelve  was  identical,  we  are  told, 
with  that  "  other  gospel "  on  which  he  pronounces  his 
anathema  ;  the  original  Church  of  Jesus  never  emanci- 
pated itself  from  the  trammels  of  legalism  ;  the  Apostle 
Paul,  and  not  his  Master,  was  in  reality  the  author  of 
evangelical  doctrine,  the  founder  of  the  catholic  Church. 
The  conflict  between  Peter  and  Paul  at  Antioch, 
related  in  this  Epistle,  supplies,  in  the  view  of  Baur 
and  his  followers,  the  key  to  the  history  of  the  Early 
Church.  The  Ebionite  assumption  of  a  personal  rivalry 
between  the  two  Apostles  and  an  intrinsic  opposition  in 
their  doctrine,  hitherto  regarded  as  the  invention  of  a 
desperate  and  decaying  heretical  sect,  these  ingenious 
critics  have  adopted  for  the  basis  of  their  ''  scientific  " 
reconstruction  of  the  New  Testament.  Paul's  Judaizing 
hinderers  and  troublers  are  to  be  canonized ;  and  the 
pseudo- Clemen  tine  writings,  forsooth,  must  take  the 
place  of  the  discredited  Acts  of  the  Apostles.     Verily 


i.  18-24.]    PAUL  AND    THE  PRIMITIVE   CHURCH.  85 

"  the  whirligig  of  time  hath  its  revenges."  To  empanel 
Paul  on  his  accusers'  side,  and  to  make  this  Epistle 
above  all  convict  him  of  heterodoxy,  is  an  attempt 
which  dazzles  by  its  very  daring. 

Let  us  endeavour  to  form  a  clear  conception  of  the 
facts  touching  Paul's  connection  with  the  first  Apostles 
and  his  attitude  and  feeling  towards  the  Jewish  Church, 
as  they  are  in  evidence  in  the  first  two  chapters  of  this 
Epistle. 

I.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is  clear  that  the  Gentile 
Apostle's  relations  to  Peter  and  the  Twelve  were  those 
<:>{  personal  indcpctidence  and  official  equality. 

This  is  the  aspect  of  the  case  on  which  Paul  lays 
stress.  His  sceptical  critics  argue  that  under  his 
assertion  of  independence  there  is  concealed  an  opposi- 
tion of  principle,  a  "  radical  divergence."  The  sense  of 
independence  is  unmistakable.  It  is  on  that  side  that 
the  Apostle  seeks  to  guard  himself.  With  this  aim 
he  styles  himself  at  the  outset  ^' an  Apostle  not  from, 
men,  nor  by  man  " — neither  man-made  nor  man-sent. 
Such  apostles  there  were  ;  and  in  this  character,  we 
imagine,  the  Galatian  Judaistic  teachers,  like  those  of 
Corinth,*  professed  to  appear,  as  the  emissaries  of  the 
Church  in  Jerusalem  and  the  authorised  exponents  of 
the  teaching  of  the  *'  pillars  "  there.  Paul  is  an  Apostle 
at  first-hand,  taking  his  commission  directly  from  Jesus 
Christ.  In  that  quality  he  pronounces  his  benediction 
and  his  anathema.  To  support  this  assumption  he  has 
shown  how  impossible  it  was  in  point  of  time  and  cir- 
cumstances that  he  should  have  been  beholden  for  his 
gospel  to  the  Jerusalem  Church  and  the  elder  Apostles. 
So  far  as  regarded  the  manner  of  his  conversion  and 

*  2  Cor.  xi.  13;  iii.  i — 3.     See  the  remarks  on  the  word  Apostle  in 
Chapter  I.  p.  12. 


86  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


the  events  of  the  first  decisive  years  in  vi'hich  his 
Christian  principles  and  vocation  took  their  shape,  his 
position  had  been  altogether  detached  and  singular; 
the  Jewish  Apostles  could  in  no  way  claim  him  for 
their  son  in  the  gospel. 

But  at  last,  "  after  three  years/'  Saul  "  did  go  up  to 
Jerusalem."  What  was  it  for  ?  To  report  himself  to 
the  authorities  of  the  Church  and  place  himself  under 
their  direction?  To  seek  Peter's  instruction,  in  order  to 
obtain  a  more  assured  knowledge  of  the  gospel  he  had 
embraced?  Nothing  of  the  kind.  Not  even  ^Uo  question 
Cephas,"  as  some  render  lo-ropricrai,,  following  an  older 
classical  usage — "  to  gain  information  "  from  him  ;  but 
**  I  went  up  to  make  acquaintance  ivith  Cephas."  Saul 
went  to  Jerusalem  carrying  in  his  heart  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  high  vocation,  seeking,  as  an  equal  with  an 
equal,  to  make  pei'sonal  acquaintance  with  the  leader  of 
the  1  welve.  Cephas  (as  he  was  called  at  Jerusalem) 
must  have  been  at  this  time  to  Paul  a  profoundly 
interesting  personality.  He  w^as  the  one  man  above 
all  others  whom  the  Apostle  felt  he  must  get  to  know, 
with  whom  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  have  a  thorough 
understanding. 

How  momentous  was  this  meeting  !  How  much  we 
could  wish  to  know  what  passed  between  these  two  in 
the  conversations  of  the  fortnight  they  spent  together. 
One  can  imagine  the  delight  with  which  Peter  would 
relate  to  his  listener  the  scenes  of  the  life  of  Jesus; 
how  the  two  men  would  weep  together  at  the  recital  of 
the  Passion,  the  betrayal,  trial  and  denial,  the  agony  of 
the  Garden,  the  horror  of  the  cross ;  with  what  mingled 
awe  and  triumph  he  would  describe  the  events  of  the 
Resurrection  and  the  Forty  Days,  the  Ascension,  and 
the  baptism  of  fire.     In  Paul's  account  of  the  appear- 


I.  18-24.]    PAUL  AND    THE  PRIMITIVE   CHURCH.  87 


anccs  of  the  risen  Christ  (i  Cor.  xv.  4 — 8),  written 
many  years  afterwards,  there  are  statements  most 
naturally  explained  as  a  recollection  of  what  he  had 
heard  privately  from  Peter,  and  possibly  also  from 
James,  at  this  conference.  For  it  is  in  his  gospel  mes- 
sage and  doctrine,  and  his  Apostolic  commission,  not 
in  regard  to  the  details  of  the  biography  of  Jesus,  that 
Paul  claims  to  be  independent  of  tradition.  And  with 
what  deep  emotion  would  Peter  receive  in  turn  from 
Paul's  lips  the  account  of  his  meeting  with  Jesus,  of 
the  three  dark  days  that  followed,  of  the  message  sent 
through  Ananias,  and  the  revelations  made  and  purposes 
formed  during  the  Arabian  exile.  Between  two  such 
men,  met  at  such  a  time,  there  would  surely  be  an 
entire  frankness  of  communication  and  a  brotherly 
exchange  of  convictions  and  of  plans.  In  that  case 
Paul  could  not  fail  to  inform  the  elder  Apostle  of  the 
extent  of  the  commission  he  had  received  from  their 
common  Master  ;  although  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
made  any  public  and  formal  assertion  of  his  Apostolic 
dignity  for  a  considerable  time  afterwards.  The  sup- 
position of  a  private  cognizance  on  Peter's  part  of 
Paul's  true  status  makes  the  open  recognition  which 
took  place  fourteen  years  later  easy  to  understand 
(ch.  ii.  6 — 10). 

"  But  other  of  the  Apostles,"  Paul  goes  on  to  say, 
"  saw  I  none,  but  only  James  the  brother  of  the  Lord.' 
James,  no  Apostle  surely ;  neither  in  the  higher  sense, 
for  he  cannot  be  reasonably  identified  with  "  James  the 
son  of  Alphceus ; "  nor  in  the  lower,  for  he  was,  as  far 
as  we  can  learn,  stationary  at  Jerusalem.  But  he  stood 
so  near  the  Apostles,  and  was  in  every  way  so  impor- 
tant a  person,  that  if  Paul  had  om.itted  the  name  of 
James  in  this  connection,  he  would  have  seemed  to  pass 


88  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


over  a  material  fact.  The  reference  to  James  in  I  Cor. 
XV.  7 — a  hint  deeply  interesting  in  itself,  and  lending  so 
much  dignity  to  the  position  of  James— suggests  that 
Paul  had  been  at  this  time  in  confidential  intercourse 
with  James  as  well  as  Peter,  each  relating  to  the  other 
how  he  had  "  seen  the  Lord." 

So  cardinal  are  the  facts  just  stated  (vv.  15 — 19),  as 
bearing  on  Paul's  apostleship,  and  so  contrary  to  the 
representations  made  by  the  Judaizers,  that  he  pauses 
to  call  God  to  witness  his  veracity  :  "  Now  in  what  I 
am  writing  to  you,  lo,  before  God,  I  lie  not."  The 
Apostle  never  makes  this  appeal  lightly  ;  but  only  in 
support  of  some  averment  in  which  his  personal  honour 
and  his  strongest  feelings  are  involved  *  It  was 
alleged,  with  some  show  of  proof,  that  Paul  was  an 
underling  of  the  authorities  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem, 
and  that  all  he  knew  of  the  gospel  had  been  learned 
from  the  Twelve.  From  ver.  1 1  onwards  he  has 
been  making  a  circumstantial  contradiction  of  these 
assertions.  He  protests  that  up  to  the  time  when  he 
commenced  his  Gentile  mission,  he  had  been  under  no 
man's  tutelage  or  tuition  in  respect  to  his  knowledge  of 
the  gospel.  He  can  say  no  more  to  prove  his  case. 
Either  his  opposers  or  himself  are  uttering  falsehood. 
The  Galatians  know,  or  ought  to  know,  how  incapable 
he  is  of  such  deceit.  Solemnly  therefore  he  avouches, 
closing  the  matter  so  far,  as  if  drawing  himself  up  to 
his  utmost  ]ieight :  "  Behold,  before  God,  I  do  not 
lie  I " 

But  now  we  are  confronted  with  the  narrative  of 
the  Acts  (chap.  ix.  26 — 30),  which  renders  a  vtry 
different  account  of  this  passage  in  the  Apostle's  Hfe. 

•  See  Rom.  ix.  i  ;  2  Cor.  i.  17,  18,  23  ;  i  Thess.  ii.  5. 


i.  1824]    PAUL  AND    THE  PRIMITIVE   CHURCH.  89 

(To  vv.  26,  27  of  Luke's  narrative  we  have  already 
alluded  in  the  concluding  paragraphs  of  Chapter  V). 
We  are  told  there  that  Barnabas  introduced  Saul  '*  to 
the  Apostles " ;  here,  that  he  saw  none  of  them  but 
Cephas,  and  only  James  besides.  The  number  of  the 
Apostolate  present  in  Jerusalem  at  the  time  is  a 
particular  that  does  not  engage  Luke's  mind  ;  while  it 
is  of  the  essence  of  Paul's  affirmation.  What  the  Acts 
relates  is  that  Saul,  through  Barnabas'  intervention, 
was  now  received  by  the  Apostolic  fellowship  as  a 
Christian  brother,  and  as  one  who  "had  seen  the  Lord." 
The  object  which  Saul  had  in  coming  to  Jerusalem, 
and  the  fact  that  just  then  Cephas  was  the  only  one  of 
the  Twelve  to  be  found  in  the  city,  along  with  James — 
these  are  matters  which  only  come  into  view  from  the 
private  and  personal  standpoint  to  which  Paul  admits 
us.  For  the  rest,  there  is  certainly  no  contradiction 
when  we  read  in  the  one  report  that  Paul  "  went  up  to 
make  acquaintance  with  Cephas,"  and  in  the  other,  that 
he  "  was  with  them  going  in  and  out  at  Jerusalem, 
preaching  boldly  in  the  name  of  the  Lord ; "  that  "  he 
spake  and  disputed  against  the  Hellenists,"  moving 
their  anger  so  violently  that  his  life  was  again  in 
danger,  and  he  had  to  be  carried  down  to  Caesarea  and 
shipped  off  to  Tarsus.  Saul  was  not  the  man  to  hide 
his  head  in  Jerusalem.  We  can  understand  how 
greatly  his  spirit  was  stirred  by  his  arrival  there,  and 
by  the  recollection  of  his  last  passage  through  the 
city  gates.  In  these  very  synagogues  of  the  Hellenists 
he  had  himself  confronted  Stephen ;  outside  those 
walls  he  had  assisted  to  stone  the  martyr.  Paul's 
address  delivered  many  years  later  to  the  Jewish 
mob  that  attempted  his  life  in  Jerusalem,  shows  how 
deeply  these  remembrances  troubled  his  soul  (Acts  xxii. 


90  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE    GALATIANS. 


ly — 22).  And  they  would  not  suffer  him  now  to  be 
silent.  He  hoped  that  his  testimony  to  Christ,  delivered 
in  the  spot  where  he  had  been  so  notorious  as  a 
persecutor,  would  produce  a  softening  effect  on  his  old 
companions.  It  was  sure  to  affect  them  powerfully, 
one  way  or  the  other.  As  the  event  proved,  it  did  not 
lake  many  words  from  Saul's  lips  to  awaken  against 
iiim  the  same  fury  that  hurried  Stephen  to  his  death. 
A  fortnight  was  time  quite  sufficient,  under  the  circum- 
stances, to  make  Jerusalem,  as  we  say,  too  hot  to  hold 
Saul.  Nor  can  we  wonder,  knowing  his  love  for  his 
kindred,  that  there  needed  a  special  command  from 
heaven  (Acts  xxii.  21),  joined  to  the  friendly  compulsion 
of  the  Church,  to  induce  him  to  yield  ground  and  quit 
the  city.  But  he  had  accomplished  something ;  he 
had  "  made  acquaintance  with  Cephas." 

This  brief  visit  to  the  Holy  City  was  a  second  crisis 
in  Paul's  career.  He  was  now  thrust  forth  upon  his 
mission  to  the  heathen.  It  was  evident  that  he  was 
not  to  look  for  success  among  his  Jewish  brethren. 
He  lost  no  opportunity  of  appealing  to  them  ;  but  it 
was  commonly  with  the  same  result  as  at  Damascus 
and  Jerusalem.  Throughout  life  he  carried  with  him 
this  "  great  sorrow  and  unceasing  pain  of  heart,"  that 
to  his  "  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh,"  for  whose 
salvation  he  could  consent  to  forfeit  his  own,  his 
gospel  was  hid.  In  their  eyes  he  was  a  traitor  to 
Israel,  and  must  count  upon  their  enmity.  Everything 
conspired  to  point  in  one  direction :  ^  Depart,"  the 
Divine  voice  had  said,  "  for  I  will  send  thee  far  hence 
unto  the  Gentiles."  And  Paul  obeyed.  **  I  went,"  he 
relates  here,  **  into  the  regions  of  Syria  and  Cihcia " 
(ver.  21). 

To  Tarsus,  the  Cilician  capital,  Saul  voyaged  from 


i.  18-24]    PAUL   AND    THE  PKIMITIVE   CHURCH.  91 

Judaea.  So  we  learn  from  Acts  ix.  30.  Mis  native 
place  had  the  first  claim  on  the  Apostle  after  Jerusalem, 
and  afforded  the  best  starting-point  for  his  independent 
mission.  Syria,  however,  precedes  Cilicia  in  the  text ; 
it  was  the  leading  province  of  these  two,  in  which 
Paul  was  occupied  during  the  fourteen  years  ensuing, 
and  became  the  seat  of  distinguished  Churches.  In 
Antioch,  the  Syrian  capital,  Christianity  was  already 
planted  (Acts  xi.  19 — 21).  The  close  connection  of  the 
Churches  of  these  provinces,  and  their  predominantly 
Gentile  character,  are  both  evident  from  the  letter 
addressed  to  them  subsequently  by  the  Council  of 
Jerusalem  (Acts  xv.  23,  24).  Acts  xv.  41  shows  that 
a  number  of  Christian  societies  owning  Paul's  authority 
were  found  at  a  later  time  in  this  region.  And  there 
was  a  highroad  direct  from  Syro-Cilicia  to  Galatia, 
which  Paul  traversed  in  his  second  visit  to  the  latter 
country  (Acts  xviii.  22,  23);  so  that  the  Galatians 
would  doubtless  be  aware  of  the  existence  of  these 
older  Gentile  Churches,  and  of  their  relation  to  Paul. 
He  has  no  need  to  dwell  on  this  first  chapter  of  his 
missionary  history.  After  but  a  fortnight's  visit  to 
Jerusalem,  Paul  went  into  these  Gentile  regions,  and 
there  for  twice  seven  years — with  what  success  was 
known  to  all — "  preached  the  faith  of  which  once  he 
made  havoc." 

This  period  was  divided  into  two  parts.  For  five 
or  six  years  the  Apostle  laboured  alone  ;  afterwards  in 
conjunction  with  Barnabas,  who  invited  his  help  at 
Antioch  (Acts  xi.  25,  26).  Barnabas  was  Paul's  senior, 
and  had  for  some  time  held  the  leading  position  in  the 
Church  of  Antioch ;  and  Paul  was  personally  indebted 
to  this  generous  man  (p.  82).  He  accepted  the  position 
of  helper  to  Barnabas  without  any  compromise  of  his 


92  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS, 


liighcr  authority,  as  yet  held  in  reserve.  He  accom- 
panied Barnabas  to  Jerusalem  in  44  (or  45)  a.d.,  with 
the  contribution  made  by  the  Syrian  Church  for  the 
relief  of  the  famine-stricken  Judean  brethren — a  visit 
which  Paul  seems  here  to  forget.*  But  the  Church  at 
Jerusalem  was  at  that  time  undergoing  a  severe  per- 
secution ;  its  leaders  were  either  in  prison  or  in  flight. 
The  two  delegates  can  have  done  little  more  than 
convey  the  moneys  entrusted  to  them,  and  that  with 
the  utmost  secrecy.  Possibly  Paul  on  this  occasion 
never  set  foot  inside  the  city.  In  any  case,  the  event 
had  no  bearing  on  the  Apostle's  present  contention. 

Between  this  journey  and  the  really  important  visit 
to  Jerusalem  introduced  in  chap.  ii.  I,  Barnabas  and 
Paul  undertook,  at  the  prompting  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
expressed  through  the  Church  of  Antioch  (Acts  xiii. 
I — 4),  the  missionary  expedition  described  in  Acts 
xiii.,  xiv.  Under  the  trials  of  this  journey  the  ascend- 
ancy of  the  younger  evangelist  became  patent  to  all. 
Paul  was  marked  out  in  the  eyes  of  the  Gentiles  as 
their  born  leader,  the  Apostle  of  heathen  Christianity. 
He  appears  to  have  taken  the  chief  part  in  the 
discussion  with  the  Judaists  respecting  circumcision, 
which  immediately  ensued  at  Antioch ;  and  was  put  at 
the  head  of  the  deputation  sent  up  to  Jerusalem  con- 
cerning this  question.  This  was  a  turning-point  in 
the  Apostle's  history.  It  brought  about  the  public 
recognition  of  his  leadership  in  the  Church.  The  seal 
of  man  was  now  to  be  set  upon  the  secret  election 
of  God. 

During  this  long  period,  the  Apostle  tells  us,  he 
"remained  unknown  by  face  to  the  Churches  of  Judsea." 

*  Acts  xi.  27-30.     It  is  significant  that  tliis  ministration  was  sent 
'■to  the  Klders." 


i.  18-24.]     PAUL   AND    THE   PRIMITIVE   CHURCH.  93 


Absent  for  so  many  years  from  the  metropolis,  after  a 
fortnight's  flying  visit,  spent  in  private  intercourse 
with  Peter  and  James,  and  in  controversy  in  the 
Hellenistic  synagogues  where  few  Christians  of  the 
city  would  be  likely  to  follow  him,*  Paul  was  a 
stranger  to  the  bulk  of  the  Judean  disciples.  But  they 
watched  his  course,  notwithstanding,  with  lively  interest 
and  with  devout  thanksgiving  to  God  (vv.  22,  23). 
Throughout  this  first  period  of  his  ministry  the  Apostle 
acted  in  complete  independence  of  the  Jewish  Church, 
making  no  report  to  its  chiefs,  nor  seeking  any  direction 
from  them.  Accordingly,  when  afterwards  he  did  go 
up  to  Jerusalem  and  laid  before  the  authorities  there 
his  gospel  to  the  heathen,  they  had  nothing  to  add 
to  it;  they  did  not  take  upon  themselves  to  give  him 
any  advice  or  injunction,  beyond  the  wish  that  he  and 
Barnabas  should  "  remember  the  poor,"  as  he  was 
already  forward  to  do  (ch.  ii.  I — 10).  Indeed  the  three 
famous  Pillars  of  the  Jewish  Church  at  this  time  openly 
acknowledged  Paul's  equality  with  Peter  in  the  Apostle- 
ship,  and  resigned  to  his  direction  the  Gentile  province. 
Finally  at  Antioch,  the  head-quarters  of  Gentile 
Christianity,  when  Peter  compromised  the  truth  of 
the  gospel  by  yielding  to  Judaistic  pressure,  Paul  had 
not  hesitated  publicly  to  reprove  him  (ch.  ii.  Ii — 21). 
He  had  been  compelled  in  this  way  to  carry  the  vindi- 
cation of  his  gospel  to  the  furthest  lengths ;  and  he  had 
done  this  successfully.  It  is  only  when  we  reach  the 
end  of  the  second  chapter  that  we  discover  how  much 
the  Apostle  meant  when  he  said,  "  My  gospel  is  not 
according  to  man." 

*  For  the  ministry  alluded  to  in  Acts  xxvi.  20  there  were  other,  later 
opportunities,  especially  in  the  journey  described  in  Acts  xv.  3;  see 
also  Acts  xxi.  15,  16. 


94  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

If  there  was  any  man  to  whom  as  a  Christian 
teacher  he  was  bound  to  defer,  any  one  who  might  be 
regarded  as  his  official  superior,  it  was  the  Apostle 
Peter.  Yet  against  this  very  Cephas  he  had  dared 
openly  to  measure  himself.  Had  he  been  a  disciple  of 
the  Jewish  Apostle,  a  servant  of  the  Jerusalem  Church, 
how  would  this  have  been  possible  ?  Had  he  not  pos- 
sessed an  authority  derived  immediately  from  Christ, 
how  could  he  have  stood  out  alone,  against  the  preroga- 
tive of  Peter,  against  the  personal  friendship  and  local 
influence  of  Barnabas,  against  the  example  of  all  his 
Jewish  brethren  ?  Nay,  he  was  prepared  to  rebuke 
all  the  Apostles,  and  anathematize  all  the  angels, 
rather  than  see  Christ's  gospel  set  at  nought.  For  it 
was  in  his  view  ^'  the  gospel  of  the  glory  of  the  blessed 
God,  comynitted  to  my  trust  1^''  (i  Tim.  i.  ii). 

II.  But  while  Paul  stoutly  maintains  his  indepen- 
dence, he  does  this  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  that  there 
was  no  hostility  or  personal  rivalry  between  himself 
and  the  first  Apostles.  His  relations  to  the  Jewish 
Church  were  all  the  while  those  oti friendly  acquaintance 
and  brotherly  recognition. 

That  Nazarene  sect  which  he  had  of  old  time  per- 
secuted, was  ''the  Church  of  God"  (ver.  13).  To 
the  end  of  his  life  this  thought  gave  a  poignancy  to 
the  Apostle's  recollection  of  his  early  da3's.  To 
"  the  Churches  of  Judaea"*  he  attaches  the  epithet  in 
Christ,  a  phrase  of  peculiar  depth  of  meaning  with 
Paul,  which  he  could  never  have  conferred  as  matter 
of  formal  courtesy,  nor  by  way  of  mere  distinction 
between    the    Church    and     the    Synagogue.       From 


Ver.  22.     It  is  arbitrary  in  Meyer  to  exclude  from  this  category 
the  Church  of  Jerusalem. 


i.  18-24.J    PAUL  AND   THE  PRIMrflVE  CHURCH.  95 

Paul's  lips  this  title  is  a  guarantee  of  orthodoxy. 
It  satisfies  us  that  the  "  other  gospel "  of  the  Circum- 
cisionists  was  very  far  from  being  the  gospel  of  the 
Jewish  Christian  Church  at  large.  Paul  is  careful 
to  record  the  sympathy  which  the  Judcan  brethren 
cherished  for  his  missionary  work  in  its  earliest  stages, 
although  their  knowledge  of  him  was  comparatively 
distant :  "  Only  they  continued  to  hear  that  our  old 
persecutor  is  preaching  the  faith  which  once  he  sought 
to  destroy.  And  in  me  they  glorified  God."  Nor  does 
he  drop  the  smallest  hint  to  show  that  the  disposition 
of  the  Churches  in  the  mother  country  toward  himself, 
or  his  judgement  respecting  them,  had  undergone  any 
change  up  to  the  time  of  his  writing  this  Epistle. 

He  speaks  of  the  elder  Apostles  in  terms  of  unfeigned 
respect.  In  his  reference  in  ch.  ii.  ii — 21  to  the  error 
of  Peter,  there  is  great  plainness  of  speech,  but  no 
bitterness.  When  the  Apostle  says  that  he  '*went  up 
to  Jerusalem  to  see  Peter,"  and  describes  James  as 
"  the  Lord's  brother,"  and  when  he  refers  to  both  of 
them,  along  with  John,  as  ''  those  accounted  to  be 
pillars,"  can  he  mean  anything  but  honour  to  these 
honoured  men  ?  To  read  into  these  expressions  a 
covert  jealousy  and  to  suppose  them  written  by  way 
of  disparagement,  seems  to  us  a  strangely  jaundiced 
and  small-minded  sort  of  criticism.  The  Apostle 
testifies  that  Peter  held  a  Divine  trust  in  the  Gospel, 
and  that  God  had  "  wrought  for  Peter "  to  this 
effect,  as  for  himself  By  claiming  the  testimony  of 
the  Pillars  at  Jerusalem  to  his  vocation,  he  shows  his 
profound  respect  for  theirs.  When  the  unfortunate 
difference  arose  between  Peter  and  himself  at  Antioch, 
Paul  is  careful  to  show  that  the  Jewish  Apostle  on  that 
occasion   was   influenced  by  the  circumstances  of  the 


96  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

moment,  and  nevertheless  remained    true  in  his  real 
convictions  to  the  common  gospel. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  it  is  impossible  to  believe, 
as  the  Tendency  critics  would  have  us  do,  that  Paul 
when  he  wrote  this  letter  was  at  feud  with  the  Jewish 
Church.  In  that  case,  while  he  taxes  Peter  with 
"dissimulation"  (ch.  ii.  11-13),  he  is  himself  the  real 
dissembler,  and  has  carried  his  dissimulation  to  amazing 
lengths.  If  he  is  in  this  Epistle  contending  against  the 
Primitive  Church  and  its  leaders,  he  has  concealed  his 
sentiments  toward  them  with  an  art  so  crafty  as  to  over- 
reach itself.  He  has  taught  his  readers  to  reverence 
those  whom  on  this  hype  thesis  he  was  most  concerned 
to  discredit.  The  terms  under  which  he  refers  to 
Cephas  and  the  Judean  Churches  would  be  just  so  many 
testimonies  against  himself,  if  their  doctrine  was  the 
"  other  gospel "  of  the  Galatian  troublers,  and  if  Paul 
and  the  Twelve  were  rivals  for  the  suffrages  of  the 
Gentile  Christians. 

The  one  word  which  wears  a  colour  of  detraction  is 
the  parenthesis  in  ver.  6  of  ch.  ii. :  ^'whatever  afore- 
time* they  (those  of  repute)  were,  makes  no  difference 
to  me.  God  accepts  no  man's  person."  But  this  is  no 
more  than  Paul  has  already  said  in  ch.  i.  16,  17. 
At  the  first,  after  receiving  his  gospel  from  the  Lord  in 
person,  he  felt  it  to  be  out  of  place  for  him  to  "  confer 
with  flesh  and  blood."  So  now,  even  in  the  presence 
of  the  first  Apostles,  the  earthly  companions  of  his 
Master,  he  cannot  abate  his  pretensions,  nor  forget 
that  his  ministry  stands  on  a  level  as  exalted  as  theirs. 
This  language  is  in  precise  accord  with  that  of  i  Cor. 
XV.  10.     The  sug<^cstion  that  the  repeated  01  8okovi>t6<; 

*  We  follow   Lightfoot   in   reading   the   ttot^  as  in  ch.  i.  23,  and 
everywhere  else  in  I'aul,  as  a  panicle  Kii  time. 


i.  18-24]    PAUL  AND   THE  PRIMiriVE   CHURCH.  97 

conveys  a  sneer  against  the  leaders  at  Jerusalem,  as 
"  seeming  "  to  be  more  than  they  were,  is  an  insult  to 
Paul  that  recoils  upon  the  critics  who  utter  it.  The 
phrase  denotes  "  those  of  repute,"  "  reputed  to  be 
pillars,"  the  acknowledged  heads  of  the  mother  Church. 
Their  position  was  recognised  on  all  hands ;  Paul 
assumes  it,  and  argues  upon  it.  He  desires  to  magnify, 
not  to  minify,  the  importance  of  these  illustrious  men. 
They  were  pillars  of  his  own  cause.  It  is  a  maladroit 
interpretation  that  would  have  Paul  cry  down  James 
and  the  Twelve.  By  so  much  as  he  impaired  their 
worth,  he  must  assuredly  have  impaired  his  own.  If 
their  status  was  mere  seeming^  of  what  value  was  their 
endorsement  of  his  ?  But  for  a  preconceived  opinion, 
no  one,  we  may  safely  affirm,  reading  this  Epistle 
would  have  gathered  that  Peter's  "gospel  of  the  cir- 
cumcision "  was  the  *^  other  gospel "  of  Galatia,  or 
that  the  ** certain  from  James"  of  ch.  ii.  12  repre- 
sented the  views  and  the  policy  of  the  first  Apostles. 
The  assumption  that  Peter's  dissimulation  at  Antioch 
expressed  the  settled  doctrine  of  the  Jewish  Apostolic 
Church,  is  unhistorical.  The  Judaizers  ab  i.icd  the 
authority  of  Peter  and  James  when  they  pleaded  it  in 
favour  of  their  agitation.  So  wc  are  told  expressly  in 
Acts  XV.;  and  a  candid  interpretation  of  this  letter  bears 
out  the  statements  of  Luke.  In  James  and  Peter,  Paul 
and  John,  there  were  indeed  "  diversities  of  gifts  and 
operations,"  but  they  had  received  the  same  Spirit ;  they 
served  the  same  Lord.  They  held  alike  the  one  and 
only  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

PAUL  AND   THE  FALSE  BRETHREN. 

"  Then  after  the  space  of  fourteen  years  I  went  up  again  to  Jerusalem 
with  Barnabas,  taking  Titus  also  with  me.  And  I  went  up  by  revela- 
tion ;  and  I  laid  before  them  the  gospel  which  I  preach  among  the 
Gentiles,  but  privately  before  them  who  were  of  repute,  \aski7ig  them 
whether  I  am  running,  or  had  run,  in  vain  :  but  not  even  Titus  who 
was  with  me,  being  a  Greek,  was  compelled  to  be  circumcised.  But  it 
was*^  because  of  the  false  brethren  privily  brought  in,  who  came  in 
privily  to  spy  out  our  liberty  which  we  have  in  Christ  Jesus,  that  they 
might  bring  us  into  bondage  :  to  whom  we  gave  place  in  the  way  of 
subjection,  no,  not  for  an  hour  ;  that  the  truth  of  the  gospel  might  con- 
tinue with  you." — Gal.  ii.  i — 5. 

FOURTEEN  years"  had  elapsed  since  Paul  left 
Jerusalem  for  Tarsus,  and  commenced  his  Gentile 
mission.?  During  this  long  period — a  full  half  of  his 
missionary  course — the  Apostle  was  lost  to  the  sight 
of  the  Judean  Churches.  For  nearly  half  this  time, 
until  Barnabas  brought  him  to  Antioch,  we  have  no 
further  trace  of  his  movements.  But  these  years  of 
obscure  labour  had,  we  may  be  sure,  no  small  influence 

*  The  writer  is  compelled  in  this  instance  to  depart  from  the  render- 
ing of  the  English  Version,  for  reasons  given  in  the  sequel.  See  also 
a  paper  on  Paul  and  Jitus  at  Jerusalem,  in  The  Expositor,  3rd  series, 
vol.  vi.,  pp.  435 — 442.  The  last  three  words  within  the  brackets  agree 
with  the  R.V.  margin, 

t  These  fourteen  years  probably  amounted  to  something  less  in  our 
reckoning, — say,  from  38  to  51  A.D.  Some  six  years  elapsed  before 
Paul  was  sunmioned  to  Antioch. 


ii.  1-5-]        PAUL  AND    THE  FALSE  BRET II REN.  99 

in  shaping  the  Apostle's  subsequent  career.  It  was 
a  kind  of  Apostohc  apprenticeship.  Then  his  evange- 
listic plans  were  laid  ;  his  powers  were  practised  ;  his 
methods  of  teaching  and  administration  formed  and 
tested.  This  first,  unnoted  period  of  Paul's  missionary 
life  held,  we  imagine,  much  the  same  relation  to  his 
public  ministry  that  the  time  of  the  Arabian  retreat  did 
to  his  spiritual  development. 

We  are  apt  to  think  of  the  Apostle  Paul  only  as  we 
see  him  in  the  full  tide  of  his  activity,  carrying  "  from 
Jerusalem  round  about  unto  Illyricum  "  the  standard  of 
the  cross  and  planting  it  in  one  after  another  of  the 
great  cities  of  the  Empire,  *'  always  triumphing  in  every 
place ; "  or  issuing  those  mighty  Epistles  whose  voice 
shakes  the  world.  We  forget  the  earlier  term  of  pre- 
paration, these  years  of  silence  and  patience,  of  un- 
recorded toil  in  a  comparatively  narrow  and  humble 
sphere,  which  had  after  all  tlieir  part  in  making  Paul 
the  man  he  was.  If  Christ  Himself  would  not  **  clutch" 
at  His  Divine  prerogatives  (Phil.  ii.  5 — 11),  nor  win 
them  by  self-assertion  and  before  the  time,  how  much 
more  did  it  become  His  servant  to  rise  to  his  great 
office  by  slow  degrees.  Paul  served  first  as  a  private 
missionary  pioneer  in  his  native  land,  then  as  a  junior 
colleague  and  assistant  to  Barnabas,  until  the  summon", 
came  to  take  a  higher  place,  when  "  the  signs  of  an 
Apostle"  had  been  fully  "wrought  in  him."  Net 
in  a  day,  nor  by  the  effect  of  a  single  revelation  did  \\v 
become  the  fully  armed  and  all-accomplished  Apostle 
of  the  Gentiles  whom  we  meet  in  this  Epistle.  "  After 
the  space  of  fourteen  years  "  it  was  time  for  him  to 
stand  forth  the  approved  witness  and  minister  of  Jesur. 
Christ,  whom  Peter  and  John  publicly  embraced  as  their 
equal. 


100  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


Paul  claims  here  the  initiative  in  the  momentous 
visit  to  Jerusalem  undertaken  by  himself  and  Barnabas, 
of  which  he  is  going  to  speak.  In  Acts  xv.  2  he  is 
similarly  placed  at  the  head  of  the  deputation  sent  from 
Antioch  about  the  question  of  circumcision.  The 
account  of  the  preceding  missionary  tour  in  Acts  xiii., 
xiv.,  shows  how  the  headship  of  the  Gentile  Church  had 
come  to  devolve  on  Paul.  In  Luke's  narrative  they 
are  "  Barnabas  and  vSaul  "  who  set  out ;  "  Paul  and 
Barnabas"  who  return.*  Under  the  trials  and  hazards 
of  this  adventure — at  Paphos,  Pisidian  Antioch,  Lystra 
— Paul's  native  ascendancy  and  his  higher  vocation 
irresistibly  declared  themselves.  Age  and  rank  yielded 
to  the  fire  of  inspiration,  to  the  gifts  of  speech,  the 
splendid  powers  of  leadership  which  the  difficulties  of 
this  expedition  revealed  in  Paul.  Barnabas  returned 
to  Antioch  with  the  thought  in  his  heart,  "  He  must 
increase  ;  I  must  decrease."  And  Barnabas  was  too 
generous  a  man  not  to  yield  cheerfully  to  his  companion 
the  precedence  for  which  God  thus  marked  him  out. 
Yet  the  "  sharp  contention "  in  which  the  two  men 
parted  soon  after  this  time  (Acts  xv.  36 — 40),  was,  we 
may  conjecture,  due  in  some  degree  to  a  lingering  sore- 
ness in  the  mind  of  Barnabas  on  this  account. 

The  Apostle  expresses  himself  with  modesty,  but 
in  such  a  way  as  to  show  that  he  was  regarded  in  this 
juncture  as  the  champion  of  the  Gentile  cause.  The 
"  revelation "  that  prompted  the  visit  came  to  him. 
The  "  taking  up  of  Titus  "  was  his  distinct  act  (ver.  i). 
Unless  Paul  has  deceived  himself,  he  was  quite  the 
leading  figure  in  the  Council ;  it  was  his  doctrine  and 
his  Apostleship  that  exercised  the  minds  of  the  chiefs 

♦  Acts  xiii.  2,  7,  13,  43,  45,  46,  50  ;  xiv.  12,  14  ;  xv.  2,  12 


ii.  1-5.]        PAUL  AND    THE  FALSE  BRETHREN.  lOi 

at  Jerusalem,  when  the  delegates  from  Antioch  appeared 
before  them.  Whatever  Peter  and  James  may  have 
known  or  surmised  previously  concerning  Paul's  voca- 
tion, it  was  only  now  that  it  became  a  public  question 
for  the  Church.  But  as  matters  stood,  it  was  a  vital 
question.  The  status  of  uncircumcised  Christians,  and 
the  Apostolic  rank  of  Paul,  constituted  the  twofold 
problem  placed  before  the  chiefs  of  the  Jewish  Church. 
At  the  same  time,  the  Apostle,  while  fixing  our  attention 
mainly  on  his  own  position,  gives  to  Barnabas  his 
meed  of  honour;  for  he  says,  "  I  went  up  with  Barnabas," 
— "  we  never  yielded  for  an  hour  to  the  false  brethren," 
— "the  Pillars  gave  to  me  and  Barnabas  the  right  hand 
of  fellowship,  that  we  might  go  to  the  Gentiles."  But 
it  is  evident  that  the  elder  Gentile  missionary  stood 
in  the  background.  By  the  action  that  he  takes  Paul 
unmistakably  declares,  '*  I  am  the  Apostle  of  the 
Gentiles;"*  and  that  claim  is  admitted  by  the  con- 
senting voice  of  both  branches  of  the  Church.  The 
Apostle  stepped  to  the  front  at  this  solemn  crisis,  not 
for  his  own  rank  or  office'  sake,  but  at  the  call  of  God, 
in  defence  of  the  truth  of  the  gospel  and  the  spiritual 
freedom  of  mankind. 

This  meeting  at  Jerusalem  took  place  in  5I>  or  i*^ 
may  be,  52  a.d.  We  make  no  doubt  that  it  is  the 
same  with  the  Council  of  Acts  xv.  The  identification 
has  been  controverted  by  several  able  scholars,  but 
without  success.  The  two  accounts  are  different,  but 
in  no  sense  contradictory.  In  fact,  as  Dr.  Pfleiderer 
acknowledges,!  they  "  admirably  supplement  each 
other.      The   agreement  as    to    the  chief   points  is  in 

*  Comp.  Rom.  xi.  13  ;  xv.  16,  17. 

f  Hibb-rt  Led  lives  ^  p.  103.     Tliis  testimony  is  the  more  valuable  as 
coming  from  the  ablest  living  exponent  of  the  Bauiian  theory. 


102  THE  EPISTLE   TO    THE   GALATIANS. 


any  case  greater  than  the  discrepancies  in  the  details ; 
and  these  discrepancies  can  for  the  most  part  be 
explained  by  the  different  standpoint  of  the  relaters." 
A  difficulty  lies,  however,  in  the  fact  that  the  historian 
of  the  Acts  makes  this  the  third  visit  of  Paul  to  Jerusalem 
subsequently  to  his  conversion  ;  whereas,  from  the 
Apostle's  statement,  it  appears  to  have  been  the  second. 
This  discrepancy  has  already  come  up  for  discussion 
in  the  last  Chapter  (p.  92).  Two  further  observations 
may  be  added  on  this  point.  In  the  first  place,  Paul 
does  not  say  that  he  had  never  been  to  Jerusalem 
since  the  visit  of  ch.  i.  18  ;  he  does  say,  that  on  this 
occasion  he  ''went  up  again,"  and  that  meanwhile 
he  "  rem.ained  unknown  by  face"  to  the  Christians  of 
Judaea  (ch.  i.  22) — a  fact  quite  compatible,  as  we  have 
shown,  with  what  is  related  in  Acts  xi.  29,  30.  And 
further,  the  request  addressed  at  this  conference  to  the 
Gentile  missionaries,  that  they  should  "  remember  the 
poor,"  and  the  reference  made  by  the  Apostle  to  his 
previous  zeal  in  the  same  business  (vv.  9,  10),  are  in 
agreement  with  the  earlier  visit  of  charity  mentioned 
by  Luke. 

I.  The  emphasis  of  ver.  I  rests  upon  its  last  clause, 
— taking  along  ivith  me  also  Titus.  Not  "Titus  as  well 
as  Barnabas " — this  cannot  be  the  meaning  of  the 
"  also  " — for  Barnabas  was  Paul's  colleague,  deputed 
equally  with  himself  by  the  Church  of  Antioch  ;  nor 
"Titus  as  well  as  others" — there  were  other  members 
of  the  deputation  (Acts  xv.  2),  but  Paul  makes  no 
reference  to  them.  The  also  (icaX)  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  of  Paul's  taking  Titus,  in  view  of  the  sequel  ; 
as  though  he  said,  "  I  not  only  went  up  to  Jerusalem 
at  this  particular  time,  under  Divine  direction,  but  I 
took  along  with  me  Titus  besides."     The  prefixed  with 


ii.  1-5.]       PAUL  AND    THE  FALSE  BRETLIREN.  103 

{gvv-^  of  the  Greek  participle  refers  to  Paul  himself: 
compare  ver.  3,  "Titus  who  was  with  me."  As  for  the 
"certain  others"  referred  to  in  Acts  xv.  2,  they  were 
most  likely  Jews ;  or  if  any  of  them  were  Gentiles, 
still  it  was  Titus  whom  Paul  had  chosen  for  his  com- 
panion ;  and  his  case  stood  out  from  the  rest  in  such 
a  way  that  it  became  the  decisive  one,  the  test-case  for 
the  matter  in  dispute. 

The  mention  of  Tiiiis^  name  in  this  connection  was 
calculated  to  raise  a  lively  interest  in  the  minds  of 
the  Apostle's  readers.  He  is  introduced  as  known  to 
the  Galatians ;  indeed  by  this  time  his  name  was 
familiar  in  the  Pauline  Churches,  as  that  of  a  fellow- 
traveller  and  trusted  helper  of  the  Apostle.  He  was 
with  Paul  in  the  latter  part  of  the  third  missionary 
tour — so  we  learn  from  the  Corinthian  letters — and 
therefore  probably  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  same 
journey,  when  the  Apostle  paid  his  second  visit  to 
Galatia.  He  belonged  to  the  heathen  mission,  and 
was  Paul's  "  true  child  after  a  common  faith  "  (Tit.  i. 
4),  an  uncircumcised  man,  of  Gentile  birth  equally  with 
the  Galatians.  And  now  they  read  of  his  "  going  up 
to  Jerusalem  with  Paul,"  to  the  mother-city  of  believers, 
where  are  the  pillars  of  the  Church — the  Jewish  teachers 
would  say — the  true  Apostles  of  Jesus,  where  His 
doctrine  is  preached  in  its  purity,  and  where  every 
Christian  is  circumcised  and  keeps  the  Law.  Titus, 
the  unclean  Gentile,  at  Jerusalem  !  How  could  he  be 
admitted  or  tolerated  there,  in  the  fellowship  of  the  first 
disciples  of  the  Lord  ?  This  question  Paul's  readers, 
after  what  they  had  heard  from  the  Circumcisionists, 
would  be  sure  to  ask.     He  will  answer  it  directly. 

But  the  Apostle  goes  on  to  say,  that  he  "  went  up 
in  accordance  with  a  revelation."      For  this  was  one 


104  THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


of  those  supreme  moments  in  his  life  when  he  looked 
for  and  received  the  direct  guidance  of  heaven.  It  was 
a  most  critical  step  to  carry  this  question  of  Gentile 
circumcision  up  to  Jerusalem,  and  to  take  Titus  with 
him  there,  into  the  enemies*  stronghold.  Moreover, 
on  the  settlement  of  this  matter  Paul  knew  that  his 
Apostolic  status  depended,  so  far  as  human  recognition 
was  concerned.  It  would  be  seen  whether  the  Jewish 
Church  would  acknowledge  the  converts  of  the  Gentile 
mission  as  brethren  in  Christ ;  and  whether  the  first 
Apostles  would  receive  him,  "  the  untimely  one,"  as  a 
colleague  of  their  own.  Never  had  he  more  urgently 
needed  or  more  implicitly  relied  upon  Divine  direction 
than  at  this  hour. 

"  And  I  put  before  them  (the  Church  at  Jerusalem) 
the  gospel  which  I  preach  among  the  Gentiles — but 
privately  to  those  of  repute  :  am  I  running  (said  I), 
or  have  I  run,  in  vain  ? "  The  latter  clause  we  read 
interrogatively  J  along  with  such  excellent  grammatical 
interpreters  as  Meyer,  Wieseler,  and  Hofmann.  Paul 
had  not  come  to  Jerusalem  in  order  to  solve  any  doubt 
in  his  ozvn  mind;  but  he  wished  the  Church  of 
Jerusalem  to  declare  its  mind  respecting  the  character 
of  his  ministry.  He  was  not  '^  running  as  uncertainly ; " 
nor  in  view  of  the  "  revelation  "  just  given  him  could 
he  have  any  fear  for  the  result  of  his  appeal.  But 
it  was  in  every  way  necessary  that  the  appeal  should 
be  made. 

The  interjected  words,  '^  but  privately,"  etc.,  indicate 
that  there  were  two  meetings  during  the  conference, 
such  as  those  which  seem  to  be  distinguished  in  Acts 
XV.  4  and  6 ;  and  that  the  Apostle's  statement  and  the 
question  arising  out  of  it  were  addressed  more  pointedly 
to  "  those  of  repute."      By  this  term  we  understand, 


ii,  1-5.]        PAUL  AND   THE  FALSE  BRETHREN.  105 


here  and  in  ver.  6,  "  the  apostles  and  elders  "  (Acts  xv.), 
headed  by  Peter  and  James,  amongst  whom  "those 
reputed  to  be  pillars  "  are  distinguished  in  ver.  9.  Paul 
dwells  upon  the  phrase  01  SoKovuref;,  because,  to  be 
sure,  it  was  so  often  on  the  lips  of  the  Judaizers,  who 
were  in  the  habit  of  speaking  with  an  imposing  air, 
and  by  way  of  contrast  with  Paul,  of  "the  authorities" 
(at  Jerusalem) — as  the  designation  might  appropriately 
be  rendered.  These  very  men  whom  the  Legalists 
were  exalting  at  Paul's  expense,  the  venerated  chiefs 
of  the  mother  Church,  had  on  this  occasion,  Paul  is 
going  to  say,  given  their  approval  to  his  doctrine  ;  they 
declined  to  impose  circumcision  on  Gentile  believers. 
The  Twelve  were  not  stationary  at  Jerusalem,  and 
therefore  could  not  form  a  fixed  court  of  reference 
there ;  hence  a  greater  importance  accrued  to  the 
Elders  of  the  city  Church,  with  the  revered  James  at 
their  head,  the  brother  of  the  Lord. 

The  Apostle,  in  bringing  Titus,  had  brought  up  the 
subject-matter  of  the  controversy.  The  "  gospel  of  the 
uncircumcision "  stood  before  the  Jewish  authorities, 
an  accomplished  fact.  Titus  was  there,  by  the  side 
of  Paul,  a  sample — and  a  noble  specimen,  we  can  well 
believe — of  the  Gentile  Christendom  wb^ch  the  Jewish 
Church  must  either  acknowledge  or  repudiate.  How 
will  they  treat  him  ?  Will  they  admit  this  foreign 
protege  of  Paul  to  their  communion  ?  Or  will  they 
require  him  first  to  be  circumcised  ?  The  question 
at  issue  could  not  take  a  form  more  crucial  for  the 
prejudices  of  the  mother  Church.  It  was  one  thing 
to  acknowledge  uncircumcised  fellow-believers  in  the 
abstract,  away  yonder  at  Antioch  or  Iconium,  or  even 
at  Coesarea ;  and  another  thing  to  see  Titus  standing 
amongst    them    in    his    heathen    uncleanncss,    on    the 


io6  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


sacred  soil  of  Jerusalem,  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Temple,  and  to  hear  Paul  claiming  for  him — for  this 
"dog  "of  a  Gentile— equally  with  himself  the  rights 
of  Christian  brotherhood  !  The  demand  was  most 
offensive  to  the  pride  of  Judaism,  as  no  one  knew 
better  than  Paul;  and  we  cannot  wonder  that  a 
revelation  was  required  to  justify  the  Apostle  in  making 
it.  The  case  of  Trophimus,  whose  presence  with  the 
Apostle  at  Jerusalem  many  years  afterwards  proved 
so  nearly  fatal  (Acts  xxi.  27 — 30),  shows  how 
exasperating  to  the  legalist  party  his  action  in  this 
instance  must  have  been.  Had  not  Peter  and  the 
better  spirits  of  the  Church  in  Jerusalem  laid  to 
heart  the  lesson  of  the  vision  of  Joppa,  that  "  no  man 
must  be  called  common  or  unclean,"  and  had  not 
the  wisdom  of  the  Holy  Spirit  eminently  guided  this 
first  Council  of  the  Church,*  Paul's  challenge  would 
have  received  a  negative  answer ;  and  Jewish  and 
Gentile  Christianity  must  have  been  driven  asunder. 

The  answer,  the  triumphant  answer,  to  Paul's  appeal 
comes  in  the  next  verse  :  **  Nay,  not  even  f  Titus  who 
was  with  me,  being  a  Greek,  was  compelled  to  be 
circumcised."  Titus  ivas  not  circumcised,  in  point  of 
fact — how  can  we  doubt  this  in  view  of  the  language 
of  ver.  5  :  "Not  even  for  an  hour  did  we  yield  in 
subjection  ? "  And  he  ''  was  not  compelled  to  be  cir- 
cumcised "—a  mode  of  putting  the  denial  which  implies 
that  in  refusing  his  circumcision  urgent  solicitation  had 


*  Acts  XV.  28:  "It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and  to  us." 
This  was  in  the  Early  Church  no  mere  pious  official  form. 

f  For  this  use  of  6Xl\  ovoe  compare  Acts  xix.  2  (here  also  after  a  ques- 
tion) ;  I  Cor.  iii.  2  ;  iv.  3.  We  observe  a  similar  instance  of  the  phrase  in 
i^schylus,  Persa^  1.  792.  'A\X*  opjioses  itself  to  the  expectation  of  the 
Juilaistic  '*  compellers,"  present  to  the  mind  of  I'aul  and  his  readers. 


1  .  1-5.J       PAUL   AND    THE  FALSE  BRETHREN.  107 

to  be  withstood,  solicitation  addressed  to  Titus  him- 
self, as  well  as  to  the  leaders  of  his  party.  The  kind 
of  pressure  brought  to  bear  in  the  case  and  the 
quarter  from  which  it  proceeded,  the  Galatians  would 
understand  from  their  own  experience  (ch.  vi.  12  ; 
comp.  ii.  14). 

The  attempt  made  to  bring  about  Titus*  circumcision 
signally  failed.  Its  failure  was  the  practical  reply  to 
the  question  which  Paul  tells  us  (ver.  2)  he  had  put 
to  the  authorities  in  Jerusalem ;  or,  according  to  the 
more  common  rendering  of  ver.  2^,  it  was  the  answer  to 
the  apprehension  under  which  he  addressed  himself  to 
them.  On  the  former  of  these  views  of  the  connection, 
which  we  decidedly  prefer,  the  authorities  are  clear  of 
any  share  in  the  "compulsion"  of  Titus.  When  the 
Apostle  gives  the  statement  that  his  Gentile  companion 
"  was  not  compelled  to  be  circumcised"  as  the  reply  to 
his  appeal  to  "those  of  repute,"  it  is  as  much  as  to  say  : 
"  The  chiefs  at  Jerusalem  did  not  require  Titus'  circum- 
cision. They  repudiated  the  attempt  of  certain  parties 
to  force  this  rite  upon  him."  This  testimony  precisely 
accords  with  the  terms  of  the  rescript  of  the  Council, 
and  with  the  speeches  of  Peter  and  James,  given  in 
Acts  XV.  But  it  was  a  great  point  gained  to  have  the 
liberality  of  the  Jewish  Christian  leaders  put  to  the 
proof  in  this  wa}',  to  have  the  generous  sentiments 
of  speech  and  letter  made  good  in  this  example  of 
uncircumcised   Christianity  brought  to  their  doors. 

To  the  authorities  at  Jerusalem  the  question  put  by 
the  delegates  from  Antioch  on  the  one  side,  and  by  the 
Circumcisionists  on  the  other,  was  perfectly  clear.  If 
they  insist  on  Titus'  circumcision,  they  disown  Paul 
and  the  Gentile  mission  :  if  they  accept  Paul's  gospel, 
they    must    leave    'I'itus    alone.       Paul    and    Barnabas 


io8  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATL4NS. 


stated  the  case  in  a  manner  that  left  no  room  for 
doubt  or  compromise.  Their  action  was  marked,  as 
ver.  5  declares,  with  the  utmost  decision.  And  the 
response  of  the  Jewish  leaders  was  equally  frank  and 
definite.  We  have  no  business,  says  James  (Acts  xv. 
19),  "to  trouble  those  from  the  Gentiles  that  turn  to 
God."  Their  judgement  is  virtually  affirmed  in  ver.  3, 
in  reference  to  Titus,  in  whose  person  the  Galatians 
could  not  fail  to  see  that  their  own  case  had  been 
settled  by  anticipation.  "  Those  of  repute  "  disowned 
the  Circumcisionists;  the  demand  that  the  yoke  of 
circumcision  should  be  imposed  on  the  Gentiles  had 
no  sanction  from  them.  If  the  Judaizers  claimed  their 
sanction,  the  claim  was  false. 

Here  the  Apostle  pauses,  as  his  Gentile  readers 
must  have  paused  and  drawn  a  long  breath  of  relief 
or  of  astonishment  at  what  he  has  just  alleged.  If 
Titus  was  not  compelled  to  be  circumcised,  even  at 
Jerusalem,  who,  they  might  ask,  was  going  to  compel 
them  ? — The  full  stop  should  therefore  be  placed  at 
the  end  of  ver.  3,  not  ver.  2.  Vv.  I — 3  form  a 
paragraph  complete  in  itself.  Its  last  sentence  resolves 
the  decisive  question  raised  in  this  visit  of  Paul's  to 
Jerusalem,  when  he  "  took  with  him  also  Titus." 

II.  The  opening  words  of  ver.  4  have  all  the  appear- 
ance of  commencing  a  new  sentence.  This  sentence,  con- 
cluded in  ver.  5,  is  grammatically  incomplete;  but  that 
is  no  reason  for  throwing  it  upon  the  previous  sentence, 
to  the  confusion  of  both.  There  is  a  transition  of  thought, 
marked  by  the  introductory  But*  from  the  issue  of 
Paul's  second  critical  visit  to  Jerusalem  (vv.  I — 3)  to 

*  This  particle  is  a  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  ordinary 
punctuation,  which  attaches  the  following  clause  to  ver.  3.  The  5^  is 
iiimilar  to  that  of  ver.  6  (aV6  8k  t.  doKovvrup)  ;  not  of  kut  Idiav  8^  in  ver. 


11.  I -5.]        PAUL   AND    THE  FALSE  BREIUKEN.  109 

the  cause  ivlucli  made  it  necessary.  This  was  the  action 
of  "  false  brethren,"  to  whom  the  Apostle  made  a 
determined  and  successfid  resistance  (vv.  4,  5).  The 
opening  "  But "  does  not  refer  to  ver.  3  in  particular, 
ratiier  to  the  entire  foregoing  paragraph.  The  ellipsis 
(after  "  But ")  is  suitabl}^  supplied  in  the  marginal  render- 
ing of  the  Revisers,  where  we  take  it  was  to  mean,  not 
"  Because  of  the  false  brethren  Tit  as  was  not  (or  was 
not  compelled  to  be)  circumcised^^'  but  "  Because  of  the 
false  brethren  this  meeting  came  about,  or,  /  took  the 
course  aforesaid y 

To  know  what  Paul  means  by  "  false  brethren,"  we 
must  turn  to  ch.  i,  6 — 9,  iii.  I,  iv.  17,  v.  7 — 12,  vi.  12  — 14, 
in  this  Epistle;  and  again  to  2  Cor.  ii.  17 — iii.  i,  iv.  2, 
xi.  3,  4,  12 — 22,  26;  Rom.  xvi.  17,  18;  Phil.  iii.  2. 
They  were  men  bearing  the  name  of  Christ  and  pro- 
fessing faith  in  Him,  but  Pharisees  at  heart,  self-seeking, 
rancorous,  unscrupulous  men,  bent  on  exploiting  the 
Pauline  Churches  for  their  own  advantage,  and  regard- 
ing Gentile  converts  to  Christ  as  so  many  possible 
recruits  for  the  ranks  of  the  Circumcision. 

But  where,  and  how,  were  these  traitors  "  privily 
brought  in  ?  "  Brought  in,  we  answer,  to  the  field  of 
the  Gentile  mission  ;  and  doubtless  by  local  Jewish 
sympathisers,  who  introduced  them  without  the  con- 
currence of  the  officers  of  the  Church.  They  "  came  in 
privily" — slipped  in  by  stealth — "  to  spy  out  our  liberty 
which  we  have  in  Christ  Jesus."  Now  it  was  at  Antioch 
and  in  the  pagan  Churches  that  this  liberty  existed  in 

2,  nor  o^QavcLTov  di  aradpov  (Phil.  ii.  8).  which  are  parenthetical  qualifica- 
tions. And  to  say.  ''  Because  of  the  false  brethren  Titus  was  not  com- 
pelled to  be  circumcised,"  is  simply  an  inconsequence.  Would  he  have 
been  compelled  to  be  circumcised  if  they  had  noi  required  it  ?  This 
is  the  assumption  implied  by  the  above  construction. 


no  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

its  normal  exercise — the  liberty  for  which  our  Epistle 
contends,  the  enjoyment  of  Christian  privileges  inde- 
pendently of  Jewish  law — m  which  Paul  and  his 
brother  missionaries  had  identified  themselves  with 
their  Gentile  followers.  The  "  false  brethren  "  were 
Jewish  spies  in  the  Gentile  Christian  camp.  We  do  not 
see  how  the  Galatians  could  have  read  the  Apostle's 
words  otherwise;  nor  how  it  could  have  occurred  to 
them  that  he  was  referring  to  the  way  in  which  these 
men  had  been  originally  "  brought  into  "  the  Jewish 
Church.  That  concerned  neither  him.  nor  them.  But 
their  getting  into  the  Gentile  fold  was  the  serious  thing. 
They  are  the  *' certain  who  came  down  from  Judaea, 
and  taught  the  (Gentile)  brethren,  saying,  Except  ye  be 
circumcised  after  the  custom  of  Moses,  ye  cannot  be 
saved  ; "  and  whom  their  own  Church  afterwards  re- 
pudiated  (Acts  xv.  24).  With  Antioch  for  the  centre  of 
their  operations,  these  mischief-makers  disturbed  the 
whole  field  of  Paul  and  Barnabas'  labours  in  Syria 
and  Cilicia  (Acts  xv.  23  ;  comp.  Gal.  i.  21).  For  the 
Galatian  readers,  the  terms  of  this  sentence,  coming 
after  the  anathema  of  ch.  i.  6 — 9,  threw  a  startling 
light  on  the  character  of  the  Judean  emissaries  busy  in 
their  midst.  This  description  of  the  former  ''troublers  " 
strikes  at  the  Judaic  opposition  in  Galatia.  It  is  as  if 
the  Apostle  said  :  "  These  false  brethren,  smuggled  in 
amongst  us,  to  filch  away  our  liberties  in  Christ,  wolves 
in  sheep's  clothing — I  know  them  w^ell ;  1  have  en- 
countered them  before  this.  1  never  yielded  to  their 
demands  a  single  inch.  I  carried  the  struggle  with 
them  to  Jerusalem.  There,  in  the  citadel  of  Judaism, 
and  before  the  assembled  chiefs  of  the  Judean  Church, 
I  vindicated  once  and  for  all,  under  the  person  of  Titus, 
your  imperilled  Christian  rights." 


li.  1-5.]        PAUL   AND    THE   FALSE  HKETIIKEN.  in 

But  as  the  Apostle  dilates  on  the  conduct  of  these 
Jewish  intriguers,  the  precursors  of  such  an  army  of 
troublers,  his  heart  takes  fire  ;  in  the  rush  of  his  emo- 
tion he  is  carried  away  from  the  original  purport  of  his 
sentence,  and  breaks  it  oR'  with  a  burst  of  indignation  : 
*'  To  whom,"  he  cries,  "  not  even  for  an  hour  did  we  yield 
by  subjection,  that  the  truth  of  the  gospel  might  abide 
w  ith  you."  A  breakdown  like  this — an  aiuicoluthon^  as 
the  grammarians  call  it — is  nothing  strange  in  Paul's 
style.  Despite  the  shipwrecked  granmiar,  the  sense 
comes  off  safely  enough.  The  clause,  "  we  did  not 
yield,"  etc.,  describes  in  a  negative  form,  and  with 
heightened  effect,  the  course  the  Apostle  had  pursued 
from  the  first  in  dealing  with  the  false  brethren.  In 
this  unyielding  spirit  he  had  acted,  without  a  moment's 
wavering,  from  the  hour  when,  guided  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  he  set  out  for  Jerusalem  with  the  uncircumcised 
Titus  by  his  side,  until  he  heard  his  Gentile  gospel 
vindicated  by  the  lips  of  Peter  and  James,  and  received 
from  them  the  clasp  of  fellowship  as  Christ's  acknow- 
ledged Apostle  to  the  heathen. 

It  was  therefore  the  action  of  Jewish  interlopers, 
men  of  the  same  stamp  as  those  infesting  the  Galatian 
Churches,  which  occasioned  Paul's  second,  public  visit 
to  Jerusalem,  and  his  consultation  with  the  heads  of  the 
Judean  Church.  This  decisive  course  he  was  himself 
inspired  to  take;  while  at  the  same  time  it  was  taken 
on  behalf  and  under  the  direction  of  the  Church  of 
Antioch,  the  metropolis  of  Gentile  Christianity.  He 
had  gone  up  with  Barnabas  and  "  certain  others  " — 
including  the  Greek  Titus  chosen  by  himself — the 
company  forming  a  representative  deputation,  of  which 
Paul  was  the  leader  and  spokesman.  This  measure  was 
the  boldest  and  the  only  effectual  means  of  co^nb^Uing 


112  THE  EPTSTLE    TO    THE   GALATIANS. 

the  Judaistic  propaganda.  It  drew  from  the  authorities 
at  Jerusalem  the  admission  that  "  Circumcision  is  no- 
thing," and  that  Gentile  Christians  are  free  from  the  ritual 
law.  This  was  a  victory  gained  over  Jewish  prejudice 
of  immense  significance  for  the  future  of  Christianity. 
The  ground  was  already  cut  from  under  the  feet  of  the 
Judaic  teachers  in  Galatia,  and  of  all  who  should  at  any 
time  seek  to  impose  external  ri^es  as  things  essential  to 
salvation  in  Christ.  To  all  his  readers  Paul  can  now 
say,  so  far  as  his  part  is  concerned  ;  The  truth  of  the 
gospel  abides  with  you. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

PAUL    AND    THE    THREE    PILLARS, 

"  But  from  tliose  who  were  reputed  to  be  somewhat  (what  they  once 
were,  it  makelh  no  matter  to  me  :  God  accepteth  not  man's  person) — 
they,  I  say,  who  were  of  repute  imparted  nothing  to  me  :  but  contraii- 
wise,  wJjpn  they  saw  that  1  had  been  intrusted  with  the  gospel  of  the 
uncircumcision,  even  as  Peter  with  the  gospel  of  the  circumcision  (for 
he  that  wrought  for  Peter  unto  the  apostleship  of  the  circumcision 
wrought  for  me  also  unto  the  Gentiles)  ;  and  when  they  perceived  the 
grace  that  was  given  unto  me,  James  and  Cephas  and  John,  they  who 
were  reputed  to  be  pillars,  gave  to  me  and  Barnabas  the  right  hands  of 
fellowship,  that  we  should  go  unto  the  Gentiles,  and  they  unto  the 
circumcision  ;  only  they  luoidd  that  we  should  remember  the  poor ; 
which  very  thing  I  was  also  zealous  to  do." — Gal.  ii.  6 — lO. 

WE  have  dealt  by  anticipation,  in  Chapter  VI.,  with 
several  of  the  topics  raised  in  this  section  of 
the  Epistle — touching  particularly  the  import  of  the 
phrase  "  those  of  repute,"  and  the  tone  of  disparage- 
ment in  which  these  dignitaries  appear  to  be  spoken  of 
in  ver.  6.  But  there  still  remains  in  these  verses 
matter  in  its  weight  and  difficulty  more  than  sufficient 
to  occupy  another  Chapter. 

The  grammatical  connection  of  the  first  paragraph, 
like  that  of  vv.  2,  3,  is  involved  and  disputable.  We 
construe  its  clauses  in  the  following  way  : — (i)  Ver.  6 
begins  with  a  Biit^  contrasting  "  those  of  repute  "  with 
the  "  false  brethren  "  dealt  with  in  the  last  sentence. 
It  contains  another  anacoluthon  (or  incoherence  of  lan- 

8 


114  THE  EPISTLE  TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


guage),  due  to  the  surge  of  feeling  remarked  in  ver.  4, 
which  still  disturbs  the  Apostle's  grammar.  He  begins  : 
"  But  from  those  reputed  to  be  something  " — as  though 
he  intended  to  say,  "  I  received  on  my  part  nothing,  no 
addition  or  qualification  to  my  gospel."  But  he  has 
no  sooner  mentioned  /'  those  of  repute  "  than  he  is  re- 
minded of  the  studied  attempt  that  was  made  to  set  up 
their  authority  in  opposition  to  his  own,  and  accordingly 
throws  in  this  protest :  ^'  what  they  were  aforetime,* 
makes  no  difference  to  me  :  man's  person  God  doth 
not  accept."  But  in  saying  this,  Paul  has  laid  down 
one  of  his  favourite  axioms,  a  principle  that  filled  a 
large  place  in  his  thoughts ;  f  and  its  enunciation 
deflects  the  course  of  the  main  sentence,  so  that  it  is 
resumed  in  an  altered  form  :  "  For  to  me  those  of 
repute  imparted  nothing."  Here  the  me  receives  a 
greater  emphasis  ;  and /or  takes  the  place  of  but.  The 
fact  that  the  first  Apostles  had  nothing  to  impart  to 
Paul,  signally  illustrates  the  Divine  impartiality,  which 
often  makes  the  last  and  least  in  human  eyes  equal  to 
the  first. 

(2)  Vv.  7 — 9  state  the  positive^  as  ver.  6  the  negative 
side  of  the  relation  between  Paul  and  the  elder  Apostles, 
still  keeping  in  view  the  principle  laid  down  in  the 
former  verse.  "  Nay,  on  the  contrary,  when  they  saw 
that  I  have  in  charge  the  gospel  of  the  uncircumcision, 
as  Peter  that  of  the  circumcision  (ver.  7) — and  when 
they  perceived  the  grace  that  had  been  given  me,  James 
and  Cephas  and  John,  those  renowned  pillars  of  the 
Church,  gave  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  myself  and 


*  For  this  rendering  of  ttot^  comp.  ch.  i.  13,  23  ;  and  see  Lightfoot, 
or  Beet,  in  loc. 

t  Comp.  Rom.  ii.  ii  ;  i  Cor.  i.  27—31  ;  xv,  9,  10;  Eph.  vi.  9; 
Col.  iii.  25. 


ii.6-io.]        PAUL  AND    THE   THREE  PILLARS,  115 

Barnabas,  agreeing  that  we  should  go  to  the  Gentiles, 
wliile  they  laboured  amongst  the  Jews"  (ver.  9). 

(3)  Ver.  8  comes  in  as  a  parenthesis,  explaining  how 
the  authorities  at  Jerusalem  came  to  see  that  this  trust 
belonged  to  Paul.  "  For,"  he  says,  "  He  that  in  Peter's 
case  displayed  His  power  in  making  him  (above  all 
others)  Apostle  of  the  Circumcision,  did  as  much  for 
me  in  regard  to  the  Gentiles."  It  is  not  human  ordina- 
tion, but  Divine  inspiration  that  makes  a  minister  of 
Jesus  Christ.  The  noble  Apostles  of  Jesus  had  the 
wisdom  to  see  this.  It  had  pleased  God  to  bestow  this 
grace  on  their  old  Tarsian  persecutor ;  and  they  frankly 
acknowledged  the  fact. 

Thus  Paul  sets  forth,  in  the  first  place,  the  completeness 
of  his  Apostolic  qualifications^  put  to  proof  at  the  crisis  of 
the  circumcision  controversy  ;  and  in  the  second  place, 
the  judgement  formed  respecting  him  and  his  office  by  the 
first  Apostles  and  companions  of  the  Lord. 

I.  "  To  me  those  of  repute  added  nothing."  Paul 
had  spent  but  a  fortnight  in  the  Christian  circle  of 
Jerusalem,  fourteen  years  ago.  Of  its  chiefs  he  had 
met  at  that  time  only  Peter  and  James,  and  them  in  the 
capacity  of  a  visitor,  not  as  a  disciple  or  a  candidate  for 
office.  He  had  never  sought  the  opportunity,  nor  felt 
the  need,  of  receiving  instruction  from  the  elder  Apostles 
during  all  the  years  in  which  he  had  preached  Christ 
amongst  the  heathen.  It  was  not  likely  he  would  do 
so  now.  When  he  came  into  conference  and  debate 
with  them  at  the  Council,  he  showed  himself  their  equal, 
neither  in  knowledge  nor  authority  "  a  whit  behind  the 
very  chiefest."   And  they  were  conscious  of  the  same  fact. 

On  the  essentials  of  the  gospel  Paul  found  himself 
in  agreement  with  the  Twelve.  This  is  implied  in  the 
language  of  ver.  6.    When  one  writes,  "  A  adds  nothing 


ii6  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


to  B,"  one  assumes  that  B  has  already  what  belongs  to 
A,  and  not  something  different.  Paul  asserts  in  the 
most  positive  terms  he  can  command,  that  his  inter- 
course with  the  holders  of  the  primitive  Christian 
tradition  left  him  as  a  minister  of  Christ  exactly  where 
he  was  before.  "  On  me/'  he  says,  "  they  conferred 
nothing  " — rather,  perhaps,  "  addressed  no  communication 
to  me."  The  word  used  appears  to  deny  their  having 
made  any  motion  of  the  kind.  The  Greek  verb  is  the 
same  that  was  employed  in  ch.  i.  i6,  a  rare  and 
delicate  compound.'^'  Its  meaning  varies,  like  that  of 
our  confer,  communicate,  as  it  is  applied  in  a  more  or 
less  active  sense.  In  the  former  place  Paul  had  said 
that  he  "  did  not  confer  with  flesh  and  blood  " ;  now 
he  adds,  that  flesh  and  blood  did  not  confer  any- 
thing upon  him.  Formerly  he  did  not  bring  his  com- 
mission to  lay  it  before  men  ;  now  they  had  nothing 
to  bring  on  their  part  to  lay  before  him.  The  same 
word  affirms  the  Apostle's  independence  at  both  epochs, 
shown  in  the  first  instance  by  his  reserve  toward  the 
dignitaries  at  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  second  by  their 
reserve  toward  him.  Conscious  of  his  Divine  call,  he 
sought  no  patronage  from  the  elder  Apostles  then  ;  and 
they,  recognising  that  call,  offered  him  no  such  patronage 
now.  Paul's  gospel  for  the  Gentiles  was  complete,  and 
sufficient  unto  itself.  His  ministry  showed  no  defect  in 
quality  or  competence.  There  was  nothing  about  it 
that  laid  it  open  to  correction,  even  on  the  part  of  those 
wisest  and  highest  in  dignity  amongst  the  personal 
followers  of  Jesus. 

*  We  cannot  explain  irpoffav^dfVTO  here  hy  the  dvedefjLyjv  of  ver.  2. 
as  thou.i>;h  Paul  wished  to  say,  ''I  imparted  to  them  my  gospel  ;  tlicy 
imparted  to  me  nothing  further.^'  For  tt/oos-  implies  direclion^  railier 
than  addiiion.     See  Meyer  oi  this  vtrb  in  ch.  i.  i6 


ii.6-io.]        PAUL   AND    THE    THREE  PILLARS.  117 


So  Paul  declares;  and  wc  can  readily  believe  him. 
Nay,  we  are  tempted  to  think  that  it  was  rather  the 
Pillars  who  might  need  to  learn  from  him,  than  he 
from  them.  In  doctrine,  Paul  holds  the  primacy  in  the 
l)and  of  the  Apostles.  While  all  were  inspired  by  the 
.Spirit  of  Christ,  the  Gentile  Apostle  was  in  many  ways 
a  more  richly  furnished  man  than  any  of  the  rest.  The 
Paulinism  of  Peter's  thirst  Epistle  goes  to  show  that  the 
debt  was  on  the  other  side.  Their  earlier  privileges 
and  priceless  store  of  recollections  of  '^all  that  Jesus 
did  and  taught,"  were  matched  on  Paul's  side  by  a 
penetrating  logic,  a  breadth  and  force  of  intellect  applied 
to  the  facts  of  revelation,  and  a  burning  intensity  of 
spirit,  which  in  their  combination  were  unique.  The 
Pauline  teaching,  as  it  appears  in  the  New  Testament, 
bears  in  the  highest  degree  the  marks  of  original  genius, 
the  stamp  of  a  mind  whose  inspiration  is  its  own. 

Modern  criticism  even  exaggerates  Paul's  originality. 
It  leaves  the  other  Apostles  little  more  than  a  negative 
part  to  play  in  the  development  of  Christian  truth.     In 
some  of  its  representations,  the  figure  of  Paul  appears 
to   overshadow  even  that  of  the  Divine    Master.       It 
was  Paul's  creative  genius,  it  is  said,  his  daring  idealism, 
that  deified    the    human    Jesus,    and    transformed    the 
scandal  of  the    cross  into  the   glory  of  an   atonement 
reconciling    the  world   to   God.       Such    theories    Paul 
himself  would  have  regarded  with  horror.     *'  I  received 
of  the  Lord  that  which  I  delivered  unto  you:"  such 
is  his  uniform  testimony.     If  he  owed  so  little   as    a 
minister  of  Christ  to  his  brother  Apostles,  he  felt  with 
the  most  sincere  humility  that  he  owed  everything  to 
Christ.     The  agreement  of  Paul's  teaching  with  that  of 
the  other  New  Testament  writers,  and  especially  with 
that  of  Jesus  in    the   Gospels,   proves    that,   however 


Ii8  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATJANS. 

distinct  and  individual  his  conception  of  the  common 
gospel,  none  the  less  there  was  a  common  gospel  of 
Christ,  and  he  did  not  speak  of  his  own  mind.  The 
attempts  made  to  get  rid  of  this  agreement  by  post- 
dating the  New  Testament  documents,  and  by  explain- 
ing away  the  larger  utterances  of  Jesus  found  in  the 
Gospels  as  due  to  Paulinist  interpolation,  are  unavail- 
ing. They  postulate  a  craftiness  of  ingenuity  on  the 
part  of  the  writers  of  the  incriminated  books,  and  an 
ignorance  in  those  who  first  received  them,  alike  in- 
conceivable. Paul  did  not  build  up  the  splendid  and 
imperishable  fabric  of  his  theology  on  some  speculation 
of  his  own.  Its  foundation  lies  in  the  person  and  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  was  common  to  Paul  with 
James  and  Cephas  and  John.  "  Whether  I  or  they," 
he  testifies,  *'  so  we  preach,  and  so  ye  believed " 
(i  Cor.  XV.  II).  Paul  satisfied  himself  at  this  con- 
ference that  he  and  the  Twelve  taught  the  same  gospel. 
Not  in  its  primary  data,  but  in  their  logical  develop- 
ment and  application,  lies  the  specifically  Pauline  in 
Paulinism.  The  harmony  between  Paul  and  the  other 
Apostolic  leaders  has  the  peculiar  value  which  belongs 
to  the  agreement  of  minds  of  different  orders,  working 
independently. 

The  Judaizers,  however,  persistently  asserted  Paul's 
dependence  on  the  elder  Apostles.  "  The  authority  of 
the  Primitive  Church,  the  Apostolic  tradition  of  Jeru- 
salem " — this  was  the  fulcrum  of  their  argument.  Where 
could  Paul,  they  asked,  have  derived  his  knowledge  of 
Christ,  but  from  this  fountain-head  ?  And  the  power 
that  made  him,  could  unmake  him.  Those  who  com- 
missioned him  had  the  right  to  overrule  him,  or  even 
to  revoke  his  commission.  Was  it  not  known  that  he 
had  from  time  to  time  resorted  to  Jerusalem ;  that  he 


ii.6-io.]        PAUL  A. YD    THE   THREE  P/I.LAKS.  lUj 

had  once  publicly  submitted  his  teaching  to  the 
examination  of  the  heads  of  the  Church  there  ?  The 
words  of  ver.  6  contradict  these  mahcious  insinuations. 
Hence  the  positiveness  of  the  Apostle's  self-assertion. 
In  the  Corinthian  Epistles  his  claim  to  independence  is 
made  in  gentler  style,  and  with  expressions  of  humility 
that  might  have  been  misunderstood  here.  But  the 
position  Paul  takes  up  is  the  same  in  either  case  :  "  I 
am  an  Apostle.  I  have  seen  Jesus  our  Lord.  You — 
Corinthians,  Galatians — are  my  work  in  the  Lord." 
That  Peter  and  the  rest  were  in  the  old  days  so  near 
to  the  Master,  "  makes  no  difference  "  to  Paul.  They 
are  what  they  are — their  high  standing  is  universally 
acknowledged,  and  Paul  has  no  need  or  wish  to  ques- 
tion it ;  but,  by  the  grace  of  God,  he  also  is  what  he  is 
(i  Cor.  XV.  lo).  Their  Apostleship  does  not  exclude 
or  derogate  from  his. 

The  self-depreciation,  the  keen  sense  of  inferiority 
in  outward  respects,  so  evident  in  Paul's  allusions  to 
this  subject  elsewhere,  is  after  all  not  wanting  here. 
For  when  he  says,  *'  God  regards  not  mans  pe?'son"  it 
is  evident  that  in  respect  of  visible  qualifications  Paul 
felt  that  he  had  few  pretensions  to  make.  Appear- 
ances were  against  him.  And  those  who  "  glory  in 
appearance  "  were  against  him  too  (2  Cor.  v.  12).  Such 
men  could  not  appreciate  the  might  of  the  Spirit  that 
wrought  in  Paul,  nor  the  sovereignty  of  Divine  election. 
They  "  reckoned  "  of  the  Apostle  "  as  though  he  walked 
according  to  flesh  "  (2  Cor.  x.  2).  It  seemed  to  them 
obvious,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  he  was  far  below 
the  Twelve.  With  men  of  worldly  wisdom  the  Apostle 
did  not  expect  that  his  arguments  would  prevail.  His 
appeal  was  to  "  the  spiritual,  who  judge  all  things." 

So  wc^  come  back  to  the  declaration  of  the  Apostle 


120  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


in  ch.  i.  1 1  :  ''  I  give  you  to  know,  brethren,  that  my 
gospel  is  not  according  to  man."  Man  had  no  hand 
either  in  laying  its  foundation  or  putting  on  the  head- 
stone. Paul's  predecessors  in  Apostolic  office  did  not 
impart  the  gospel  to  him  at  the  outset ;  nor  at  a  later 
time  had  they  attempted  to  make  any  addition  to  the 
doctrine  he  had  taught  far  and  wide  amongst  the 
heathen.  I  lis  Apostleship  was  from  first  to  last  a 
supernatural  gift  of  grace. 

II.  Instead,  therefore,  of  assuming  to  be  his 
superiors,  or  offering  to  bestow  something  of  their  own 
on  Paul,  the  three  renoivncd  pillars  of  the  faith  at  feru- 
salem  acknowledged  him  as  a  brother  Apostle. 

"  They  saw  that  I  am  intrusted  with  the  gospel  of  the 
uncircumcision."  The  form  of  the  verb  implies  a  trust 
given  in  the  past  and  taking  effect  in  the  present,  a 
settled  fact.  Once  for  all,  this  charge  had  devolved 
on  Paul.  He  is  *' appointed  herald  and  apostle"  of 
"  Christ  Jesus,  who  gave  Himself  a  ransom  for  all, — 
teacher  of  the  Gentiles  in  faith  and  truth"  (i  Tim.  ii. 
6,  7).  That  office  Paul  still  holds.  He  is  the  leader 
of  Christian  evangelism.  Every  new  movement  in 
heathen  missionary  enterprise  looks  to  his  teaching 
for  guidance  and  inspiration. 

The  conference  at  Jerusalem  in  itself  furnished 
conclusive  evidence  of  Paul's  Apostolic  commission. 
The  circumcision  controversy  was  a  test  not  only  for 
Gentile  Christianity,  but  at  the  same  time  for  its 
Apostle  and  champion.  Paul  brought  to  this  discus- 
sion a  knowledge  and  insight,  a  force  of  character,  a 
conscious  authority  and  unction  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that 
powerfully  impressed  the  three  great  men  who  listened 
to  him.  The  triumvirate  at  Jerusalem  well  knew  that 
Paul    had    not   received   his    marvellous   gifts   through 


ii.6-io.]        PAUL  AND    THE    THREE  PILLARS.  121 

their  hands.  Nor  was  there  anything  lacking  to  him 
which  they  felt  themselves  called  upon  to  supply. 
They  could  only  say,  "  This  is  the  Lord's  doing  ;  and 
it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes."  Knowing,  as  Peter  at 
least,  we  presume,  had  done  for  many  years,*  the 
history  of  Paul's  conversion,  and  seeing  as  they  now 
did  the  conspicuous  Apostolic  signs  attending  his 
ministry,  James  and  Cephas  and  John  could  only  come 
to  one  conclusion.  The  gospel  of  the  uncircumcision, 
they  were  convinced,  was  committed  to  Paul,  and  his 
place  in  the  Church  was  side  by  side  with  Peter. 
Peter  must  have  felt  as  once  before  on  a  like  occasion : 
"  If  God  gave  unto  him  a  gift  equal  to  that  He  gave  to 
me,  who  am  I,  that  I  should  be  able  to  hinder  God  ?  " 
(Acts  xi.  17).  It  was  not  for  them  because  of  their 
elder  rank  and  dignity  to  debate  with  God  in  this 
matter,  and  to  withhold  their  recognition  from  His 
"chosen  vessel." 

John  had  not  forgotten  his  Master's  reproof  for 
banning  the  man  that  "  foUoweth  not  with  us "  (Luke 
ix.  49  ;  Mark  ix.  i"^).  They  "  recognised,"  Paul  says, 
**  the  grace  that  had  been  given  me ; "  and  by  that  he 
means,  to  be  sure,  the  undeserved  favour  that  raised 
him  to  his  Apostolic  office.f  This  recognition  was 
given  to  Paul.  Barnabas  shared  the  *'  fellowship."  His 
hand  was  clasped  by  the  three  chiefs  at  Jerusalem,  not 
less  warmly  than  that  of  his  younger  comrade.  But 
it  is  in  the  singular  number  that  Paul  speaks  of  "  the 
grace  that  was  given  ;;/^,"  and  of  the  "  trust  in  the 
gospel "  and  the  "  working  of  God  unto  Apostleshipy 

Why  then  does  not  Paul  say  outright,  "  they  acknow- 
ledged me  an  Apostle,  the  equal  of  Peter  ?  "     Some  are 

♦  Ch.  i.  18.     See  Chapter  V.,  p.  87. 

f  See  Rum.  i.  5;  i  Cor.  xv.  lo;  Lph.  iii.  2,  7,  8;  i   lim.  i.  13. 


122  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

bold  enough  to  say — Moisten  in  particular — '*  Because 
this  is  just  what  the  Jerusalem  chiefs  never  did,  and 
never  could  have  done."*  We  v^^ill  only  reply,  that  if 
this  were  the  case,  the  passage  is  a  continued  suggestio 
falsi.  No  one  could  write  the  words  of  vv.  7 — 9,  with- 
out intending  his  readers  to  believe  that  such  a  recogni- 
tion took  place.  Paul  avoids  the  point-blank  assertion, 
with  a  delicacy  that  any  man  of  tolerable  modesty  will 
understand.  Even  the  appearance  of  "glorying"  was 
hateful  to  him  (2  Cor.  x.  17;  xi.  I  ;  xii.  I — 5,  II). 

The  Church  at  Jerusalem,  as  we  gather  from  vv. 
7,  8,  observed  in  Paul  "  signs  of  the  Apostle " 
resembling  those  borne  by  Peter.  His  Gentile  com- 
mission ran  parallel  with  Peter's  Jewish  commission. 
The  labours  of  the  two  men  were  followed  by  the  same 
kind  of  success,  and  marked  by  similar  displays  of 
miraculous  power.  The  like  seal  of  God  was  stamped 
on  both.  This  correspondence  runs  through  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles.  Compare,  for  example,  Paul's  sermon 
at  Antioch  in  Pisidia  with  that  of  Peter  on  the  Day  of 
Pentecost ;  the  healing  of  the  Lystran  cripple  and  the 
punishment  of  Elymas,  with  the  case  of  the  lame  man 
at  the  Temple  gate  and  the  encounter  of  Peter  and 
Simon  Magus.  The  conjunction  of  the  names  of  Peter 
and  Paul  was  familiar  to  the  Apostolic  Church.  The 
parallelism  between  the  course  of  these  great  Apostles 
was  no  invention  of  second-century  orthodoxy,  set  up 
in  the  interests  of  a  ''  reconciling  hypothesis ; "  it 
attracted  public  attention  as  early  as  51  a.d.,  while 
they  were  still  in  their  mid  career.  If  this  idea  so 
strongly  possessed  the  minds  of  the  Jewish  Christian 
leaders   and  influenced  their  action  at   the   Council  of 

*  Zum  Evangelien  d.  Patdus  und  d.  PetrtiSy  p.  273.    Holsten  is  the 
keenest  and  most  logical  of  all  the  Baurian  succession 


ii.6-io.]         PAUL  AND   THE   IIIKKE  PILLARS.  lij 

Jerusalem,  we  need  not  be  surprised  that  it  should 
dominate  Luke's  narrative  to  the  extent  that  it  does. 
The  allusions  to  Peter  in  i  Corinthians  *  afford  further 
proof  that  in  the  lifetime  of  the  two  Apostles  it  was  a 
common  thing  to  link  their  names  together. 

But  had  not  Peter  also  a  share  in  the  Gentile 
mission  ?  Does  not  the  division  of  labour  made  at 
this  conference  appear  to  shut  out  the  senior  Apostle 
from  a  field  to  which  he  had  the  prior  claim  ?  "  Ye 
know,"  said  Peter  at  the  Council,  "  how  that  a  good 
while  ago  God  made  choice  among  you,  that  by  m}^ 
mouth  the  Gentiles  should  hear  the  word  of  the  gospel, 
and  believe  "  (Acts  xv.  7).  To  Peter  was  assigned  the 
double  honour  of  "  opening  the  door  of  faith  "  both  to 
Jew  and  Gentile.  This  experience  made  him  the  readier 
to  understand  Paul's  position,  and  gave  him  the  greater 
weight  in  the  settlement  of  the  question  at  issue.  And 
not  Peter  alone,  but  Philip  the  evangelist  and  other 
Jewish  Christians  had  carried  the  gospel  across  the 
line  of  Judaic  prejudice,  before  Paul  appeared  on  the 
scene.  Barnabas  and  Silas  were  both  emissaries  of 
Jerusalem.  So  that  the  mother  Church,  if  she  could 
not  claim  Paul  as  her  son,  had  nevertheless  a  large 
stake  in  the  heathen  mission.  But  when  Paul  came  to 
the  front,  when  his  miraculous  call,  his  incomparable 
gifts  and  wonderful  success  had  made  themselves 
known,  it  was  evident  to  every  discerning  mind  that  he 
was  the  man  chosen  by  God  to  direct  this  great  work. 
Peter  had  opened  the  door  of  faith  to  the  heathen,  and 
had  bravely  kept  it  open  ;  but  it  was  for  Paul  to  lead 
the  Gentile  nations  through  the  open  door,  and  to  make 
a  home  for  them  within  the  fold  of  Christ.     The  men 


*  Ch.  i.  12;  iii.  22  ;  ix.  5. 


124  I^IE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS 

who  had  laboured  in  this  field  hitherto  were  Paul's  fore- 
runners. And  Peter  does  not  hesitate  to  acknowledge 
the  younger  Apostle's  special  fitness  for  this  wider 
province  of  their  common  work  ;  and  with  the  con- 
currence of  James  and  John  he  yields  the  charge  of  it 
to  him. 

Let  us  observe  that  it  is  two  different  provinces,  not 
different  gospels,  that  are  in  view.  When  the  Apostle 
speaks  of  "  the  gospel  of  the  uncircumcision  "  as  com- 
mitted to  himself,  and  that  ''  of  the  circumcision  "  to 
Peter,  he  never  dreams  of  any  one  supposing,  as  some 
of  his  modern  critics  persist  in  doing,  that  he  meant 
two  different  doctrines.  How  can  that  be  possible, 
when  he  has  declared  those  anathema  who  preach  any 
other  gospel  ?  He  has  laid  his  gospel  before  the  heads 
of  the  Jerusalem  Church.  Nothing  has  occurred  there, 
nothing  is  hinted  here,  to  suggest  the  existence  of  a 
"  radical  divergence."  If  James  and  the  body  of  the 
Judean  Church  really  sympathised  with  the  Circum- 
cisionists,  with  those  whom  the  Apostle  calls  "  false 
brethren,"  how  could  he  with  any  sincerity  have  come 
to  an  agreement  with  them,  knowing  that  this  tremen- 
dous gulf  was  lying  all  the  while  between  the  Pillars 
and  himself?  Zeller  argues  that  the  transaction  was 
simply  a  pledge  of  "reciprocal  toleration,  a  merely 
external  concordat  between  Paul  and  the  original 
Apostles."  *  The  clasp  of  brotherly  friendship  was  a 
sorry  farce,  if  that  were  all  it  meant — if  Paul  and  the 
Three  just  consented  for  the  time  to  slur  over  irrecon- 
cilable differences  ;  while  Paul  in  turn  has  glossed  over 
the  affair  for  us  in  these  artful  verses  !  Baur,  with 
characteristic  finesse,  says  on  the  same  point :    "  The 

*   The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  criticallv  investigated,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  28,  30  : 
Eng.  Trans. 


ii.Gio.]         PAUL   AND    THE    THREE   rilJ.ARS.  125 


KOivwvia  was  always  a  division ;  it  could  only  be 
brought  into  effect  by  one  party  going  eU  ra  eOvrj,  the 
other  et?  rrfv  Tre pLTOfjuyu.  As  the  Jewish  Apostles  could 
allege  nothing  against  the  principles  on  which  Paul 
founded  his  evangelical  mission,  they  were  obliged  to 
recognise  them  in  a  certain  manner ;  but  their  recogni- 
tion was  a  mere  outward  one.  They  left  him  to  work 
on  these  principles  still  further  in  the  cause  of  the 
gospel  among  the  Gentiles  ;  but  for  themselves  they 
did  not  desire  to  know  anything  more  about  them."  * 
So  that,  according  to  the  Tubingen  critics,  we  witness  in 
ver.  9  not  a  union,  but  a  divorce  !  The  Jewish  Apostles 
recognise  Paul  as  a  brother,  only  in  order  to  get  rid  of 
him.  Can  misinterpretation  be  more  unjust  than  this  ? 
Paul  does  not  say,  "  They  gave  us  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship  on  condition  thaty^  but,  "  in  order  that  we  should 
go  this  way,  they  that."  As  much  as  to  say  :  The 
two  parties  came  together  and  entered  into  a  closer 
union,  so  that  with  the  best  mutual  understanding  each 
might  go  its  own  way  and  pursue  its  proper  work  in 
harmony  with  the  other.  For  Paul  it  would  have  been 
a  sacrilege  to  speak  of  the  diplomatic  compromise  which 
Baur  and  Zeller  describe  as  "  giving  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship." 

Never  did  the  Church  more  deeply  realise  than  at 
her  first  Council  the  truth,  that  "there  is  one  body 
and  one  Spirit ;  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism  ;  one 
God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and  through 
all,  and  in  all"  (Eph.  iv.  4—6).  Paul  still  seems  to  feel 
his  hand  in  the  warm  grasp  of  Peter  and  of  John  when 
he  writes  to  the  Ephesians  of  "  the  foundation  of  the 
Apostles  and  prophets,  with  Christ  Jesus  Himself  for 

•  Faiilus,  vol.  i.,  p.  130:  Eng.  Trans. 


126  THE  EPISTLE  TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

chief  corner-stone  ;  in  whom  the  whole  building  fitly 
framed  together,  groweth  unto  an  holy  temple  in  the 
Lord"(ch.  ii.  20,  21).  Alas  for  the  criticism  that  is 
obliged  to  see  in  words  like  these  the  invention  of 
second-century  churchmanship,  putting  into  the  mouth 
of  Paul  catholic  sentiments  of  which  in  reality  he  knew 
nothing  !  Such  writers  know  nothing  of  the  power  of 
that  fellowship  of  the  Spirit  which  reigned  in  the 
glorious  company  of  the  Apostles. 

"  Only  they  would  have  us  remember  the  poor " — a 
circumstance  mentioned  partly  by  way  of  reminder  to 
the  Galatians  touching  the  collection  for  Jerusalem, 
which  Paul  had  already  set  on  foot  amongst  them 
(i  Cor.  xvi.  l).  The  request  was  prompted  by  the 
affectionate  confidence  with  which  the  Jewish  chiefs 
embraced  Paul  and  Barnabas.  It  awakened  an  eager 
response  in  the  Apostle's  breast.  His  love  to  his 
Jewish  kindred  made  him  welcome  the  suggestion. 
Moreover  every  deed  of  charity  rendered  by  the 
wealthier  Gentile  Churches  to  "  the  poor  saints  in 
Jerusalem,"  was  another  tie  helping  to  bind  the  two 
communities  to  each  other.  Of  such  liberality  Antioch, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Gentile  missionaries,  had 
already  set  the  example  (Acts  xi.  29,  30). 

JameSy  Peter,  John,  and  Paid- — it  was  a  memorable 
day  when  these  four  men  met  face  to  face.  What  a 
mighty  quaternion  !  Amongst  them  they  have  virtually' 
made  the  New  Testament  and  the  Christian  Church. 
They  represent  the  four  sides  of  the  one  foundation  of 
the  City  of  God.  Of  the  Evangelists,  Matthew  holds 
affinity  with  James  ;  Mark  with  Peter  ;  and  Luke  with 
Paul.  James  clings  to  the  past  and  embodies  the 
transition  from  Mosaism  to  Christianity.     Peter  is  the 


ii.6-io.]        PAUL   AXD    THE   TIIKEL  VILLAKS.  127 


man  of  the  present,  quick  in  thought  and  action,  eager, 
buoyant,  susceptible.  Paul  holds  the  future  in  his 
grasp,  and  schools  the  unborn  nations.  John  gathers 
present,  past,  and  future  into  one,  lifting  us  into  the 
region  of  eternal  life  and  love. 

With  Peter  and  James  Paul  had  met  before,  and  was 
to  meet  again.  But  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  this  w^as 
the  only  occasion  on  which  his  path  crossed  that  of 
John.  Nor  is  this  Apostle  mentioned  again  in  Paul's 
letters.  In  the  Acts  he  appears  but  once  or  twice, 
standing  silent  in  Peter's  shadow.  A  holy  reserve 
surrounds  John's  person  in  the  earlier  Apostolic  history. 
His  hour  was  not  yet  come.  But  his  name  ranked 
in  public  estimation  amongst  the  three  foremost 
of  the  Je\*'i5h  Church  ;  and  he  exercised,  doubtless,  a 
powerful,  though  quiet,  conciliatory  influence  in  the 
settlement  of  the  Gentile  question.  The  personality  of 
Paul  excited,  we  may  be  sure,  the  profoundest  interest 
in  such  a  mind  as  that  of  John.  He  absorbed,  and  yet 
in  a  sense  transcended,  the  Pauline  theology.  The 
Apocalypse,  although  the  most  Judaic  book  of  the  New 
Testament,  is  penetrated  with  the  influence  of  Paulinism. 
The  detection  in  it  of  a  covert  attack  on  the  Gentile 
Apostle  is  simply  one  of  the  mare's  nests  of  a  super- 
subtle  and  suspicious  criticism.  John  was  to  be  the 
heir  of  Paul's  labours  at  Ephesus  and  in  Asia  Minor. 
And  John's  long  life,  touching  the  verge  of  the  second 
century,  his  catholic  position,  his  serene  and  loft}'  spirit, 
blending  in  itself  and  resolving  into  a  higher  unity  the 
tendencies  of  James  and  Peter  and  Paul,  give  us  the 
best  assurance  that  in  the  Apostolic  age  there  was 
indeed  "One,  holy,  catholic.  Apostolic  Church." 

Paul's  fellowship  with    Peter   and  with  James   was 
cordial  and  endeared.     But  to  hold  the  hand  of  John, 


128  77/^5"  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

"  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,"  was  a  yet  higher  satis- 
faction. That  clasp  symbolized  a  union  between  men 
most  opposite  in  temperament  and  training,  and  brought 
to  the  knowledge  of  Christ  in  very  different  ways,  but 
whose  communion  in  Him  was  deep  as  the  life  eternal. 
Paul  and  John  are  the  two  master  minds  of  the  New 
Testament.  Of  all  men  that  ever  lived,  these  two  best 
understood  Jesus  Christ. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

PAUL   AND  PETER  AT  ANTIOCH, 

"  But  when  Cephas  came  to  Antioch,  I  resisted  him  to  the  fact, 
because  he  stood  condemned.  For  before  that  certain  came  from 
James,  he  did  eat  with  tlie  Gentiles  ;  but  when  they  came,  he  drew 
back  and  separated  himself,  fearing  them  that  were  of  the  circumcision. 
And  the  rest  of  the  Jews  dissembled  likewise  with  him  ;  insomuch  that 
even  Barnabas  was  carried  away  with  their  dissimulation.  But  when 
I  saw  that  ihey  walked  not  uprightly  according  to  the  truth  of  the 
gospel,  I  said  unto  Cephas  before  ^/lem  all,  If  thou,  being  a  Jew, 
livest  as  do  the  Gentiles,  and  not  as  do  the  Jews,  how  compellest  thou 
the  Gentiles  to  live  as  do  the  Jews  ?  We  being  Jews  by  nature,  and 
not  sinners  of  the  Gentiles,  yet  knowing  that  a  man  is  not  justified 
by  works  of  law,  but  only  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  even  we 
believed  on  Christ  Jesus,  that  we  might  be  justified  by  faith  in  Christ, 
and  not  by  the  works  of  the  law  :  because  by  the  works  of  the  law 
shall  no  flesh  be  justified.  But  if,  while  we  so'^ht  to  be  justified  in 
Christ,  we  ourselves  also  were  found  sinners,  is  Christ  a  minister  of 
sin?  God  forbid.  For  if  I  build  up  again  those  things  which  I 
destroyed,  I  prove  myself  a  transgressor." — Gal.  ii,  il — 18, 

THE  conference  at  Jerusalem  issued  in  the  formal 
recognition  by  the  Primitive  Church  of  Gentile 
Christianity,  and  of  Paul's  plenary  Apostleship.  And 
it  brought  Paul  into  brotherly  relations  with  the 
three  great  leaders  of  Jewish  Christianity.  But  this 
fellowship  was  not  to  continue  undisturbed.  The 
same  cause  was  still  at  work  which  had  compelled  the 
Apostle  to  go  up  to  Jerusalem,  taking  Titus  with  him. 

9 


ijo  THE  EPISTLE   7V   THE  GALATIANS. 

The  leaven  of  Pharisaic  legaHsm  remained  in  the 
Church.  Indeed,  as  time  went  on  and  the  national 
fanaticism  grew  more  violent,  this  spirit  of  intolerance 
became  increasingly  bitter  and  active.  The  address 
of  James  to  Paul  on  the  occasion  of  his  last  visit  to  the 
Holy  City,  shows  that  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  was  at 
this  time  in  a  state  of  the  most  sensitive  jealousy  in 
regard  to  the  Law,  and  that  the  legalistic  prejudices 
always  existing  in  it  had  gained  a  strength  with  which 
it  was  difficult  to  cope  (Acts  xxi.  17 — 25). 

But  for  the  present  the  Judaizing  faction  had 
received  a  check.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  party 
ever  again  insisted  on  circumcision  as  a  thing  essential 
to  salvation  for  the  Gentiles.  The  utterances  of  Peter 
and  James  at  the  Council,  and  the  circular  addressed 
therefrom  to  the  Gentile  Churches,  rendered  this 
impossible.  The  Legalists  made  a  change  of  front ; 
and  adopted  a  subtler  and  seemingly  more  moderate 
policy.  They  now  preached  circumcision  as  the  prero- 
gative of  the  Jeiv  within  the  Church,  and  as  a  counsel 
of  perfection  for  the  Gentile  believer  in  Christ  (ch.  iii.  3). 
To  quote  the  rescript  of  Acts  xv.  against  this  altered 
form  of  the  circumcisionist  doctrine,  would  have  been 
wide  of  the  mark. 

It  is  against  this  newer  type  of  Judaistic  teaching 
that  our  Epistle  is  directed.  Circumcision,  its  advocates 
argued,  was  a  Divine  ordinance  that  must  have  its 
benefit.  God  has  given  to  Israel  an  indefeasible 
pre-eminence  in  His  kingdom. f  Law-keeping  children 
of  Abraham  enter  the  new  Covenant  on  a  higher 
footing  than  ''  sinners  of  the  Gentiles  : "  they  are  still 
the  elect  race,  the  holy  nation.     If  the  Gentiles  wish 

*  Rom.  ii.  25 — iii.  i. 

I  Rom.  i.  16  ;  ii.  9,  10  ;  ix.  4,  5  ;  xi.  I,  2. 


ii.  11-18.]        PAUL  AND  PETER  AT  ANTIOCH.  131 

to  share  with  them,  they  must  add  to  their  faith 
circumcision,  they  must  complete  their  imperfect 
righteousness  by  legal  sanctity.  So  they  might  hope 
to  enter  on  the  full  heritage  of  the  sons  of  Abraham  ; 
they  would  be  brought  into  communion  with  the  first 
Apostles  and  the  Brother  of  the  Lord ;  they  would 
be  admitted  to  the  inner  circle  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  The  new  Legalists  sought,  in  fact,  to  super- 
impose Jewish  on  Gentile  Christianity.  They  no 
longer  refused  all  share  in  Christ  to  the  uncircumcised ; 
they  offered  them  a  larger  share.  So  we  construe  the 
teaching  which  Paul  had  to  combat  in  the  second 
stage  of  his  conflict  with  Judaism,  to  which  his 
four  major  Epistles  belong.  And  the  signal  for  this 
renewed  struggle  was  given  by  the  collision  with  Peter 
at  Antioch. 

This  encounter  did  not,  we  think,  take  place  on  the 
return  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  from  the  Council.  The 
compact  of  Jerusalem  secured  to  the  Church  a  few 
years  of  rest  from  the  Judaistic  agitation.  The 
Thessalonian  Epistles,  written  in  52  or  53  a.d.,  go  to 
show,  not  only  that  the  Churches  of  Macedonia  were 
free  from  the  legalist  contention,  but  that  it  did  not  at 
this  period  occupy  the  Apostle's  mind.  Judas  Bar- 
sabbas  and  Silas — not  Peter — accompanied  the  Gentile 
missionaries  in  returning  to  Antioch  ;  and  Luke 
gives,  in  Acts  xv.,  a  tolerably  full  account  of  the  cir- 
cumstances which  transpired  there  in  the  interval 
before  the  second  missionary  tour,  without  the  slightest 
hint  of  any  visit  made  at  this  time  by  the  Apostle 
Peter.  We  can  scarcely  believe  that  the  circum- 
cision party  had  already  recovered,  and  increased  its 
influence,  to  the  degree  that  it  must  have  done  when 
"  even     Barnabas    was    carried     away  "  ;     still     less 


132  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATJAXS. 

that  Peter  on  the  very  morrow  of  the  settlement  at 
Jerusalem  and  of  his  fraternal  communion  there  with 
Paul  would  show  himself  so  far  estranged. 

When,  therefore,  did  "  Cephas  come  down  to 
Antioch  ? "  The  Calatians  evidently  knew.  The 
Judaizers  had  given  their  account  of  the  matter,  to 
Paul's  disadvantage.  Perhaps  he  had  referred  to  it 
himself  on  his  last  visit  to  Galatia,  when  we  know  he 
spoke  explicitly  and  strongly  against  the  Circum- 
cisionists  (ch.  i.  9).  Just  before  his  arrival  in  Galatia 
on  this  occasion  he  had  '^  spent  some  time  "  at  Antioch 
(Acts  xviii.  22,  23),  in  the  interval  between  the  second 
and  third  missionary  journeys.  Luke  simply  mentions 
the  fact,  without  giving  any  details.  This  is  the  like- 
liest opportunity  for  the  meeting  of  the  two  Apostles 
in  the  Gentile  capital.  M.  Sabatier,*  in  the  following 
sentences,  appears  to  us  to  put  the  course  of  events  in  its 
true  light  : — ''  Evidently  the  Apostle  had  quitted  Jeru- 
salem and  undertaken  his  second  missionary  journey  full 
of  satisfaction  at  the  victory  he  had  gained,  and  free  from 
anxiety  for  the  future.  The  decisive  moment  of  the 
crisis  therefore  necessarily  falls  between  the  Thes- 
salonian  and  Galatian  Epistles.  What  had  happened 
in  the  meantime  ?  The  violent  discussion  with  Peter 
at  Antioch  (Gal.  ii.  11 — 21),  and  all  that  this  account 
reveals  to  us, — the  arrival  of  the  emissaries  from 
James  in  the  pagan-Christian  circle,  the  counter- 
mission  organized  by  the  Judaizers  to  rectify  the 
work  of  Paul.  A  new  situation  suddenly  presents 
itself  to  the  eyes  of  the  Apostle  on  his  return  from  his 
second  missionary  journey.  He  is  compelled  to  throw 
himself  into  the  struggle,  and  in  doing  so  to  formulate 

*  In   his   Vapotre   Paul :  esquisse   cCune   hhioire  de  sa  pensee^   an 
admirable  work,  to  which  the  writer  is  under  great  obhgation. 


ii.ii-iS.]        PAUL   AND   PETER  AT  ANTJOCII.  133 

in  all  its  rigour  his  principle  of  the  abolishment  of  the 
Law." 

The  "  troublers  "  in  this  instance  were  ''certain  from 
James."  Like  the  "false  brethren"*  who  appeared  at 
Antioch  three  years  before,  they  came  from  the  mother 
Church,  over  which  James  presided.  The  Judaizing 
teachers  at  Corinth  had  their  "  commendatory  letters" 
(2  Cor.  iii.  i),  derived  assuredly  from  the  same  quarter. 
In  all  likelihood,  their  confederates  in  Galatia  brought 
similar  credentials.  We  have  already  seen  that  the 
authority  of  the  Primitive  Church  was  the  chief 
weapon  used  by  Paul's  adversaries.  These  letters  of 
commendation  were  part  of  the  machinery  of  the  anti- 
Pauline  agitation.  How  the  Judaizers  obtained  these 
credentials,  and  in  what  precise  relation  they  stood  to 
James,  we  can  only  conjecture.  Had  the  Apostle  held 
James  responsible  for  their  action,  he  would  not  have 
spared  him  any  more  than  he  has  done  Peter.  James 
held  a  quasi-pastoral  relation  to  Christian  Jews  of  the 
Dispersion.  And  as  he  addressed  his  Epistle  to  them, 
so  he  would  be  likely  on  occasion  to  send  delegates 
to  visit  them.  Perhaps  the  Circumcisionists  found 
opportunity  to  pass  themselves  off  in  this  character; 
or  they  may  have  abused  a  commission  really  given 
them,  by  interfering  with  Gentile  communities.  That 
the  Judaistic  emissaries  in  some  way  or  other  adopted 
false  colours,  is  plainly  intimated  in  2  Cor.  xi.  13. 
James,  living  always  at  Jerusalem,  being  moreover  a 
man  of  simple  character,  could  have  little  suspected 
the  crafty  plot  which  was  carried  forward  under  his 
name. 

These    agents    addressed     themselves   in    the    first 

*  See  Chapter  VII.  pp.  109,  no. 


134  THE  EriSTLE   TO    THE   GALATJANS. 


instance  to  the  Jews,  as  their  commission  from  Jeru- 
salem probably  entitled  them  to  do.  The}^  plead  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  sacred  customs.  They  insist 
that  the  Mosaic  rites  carry  with  them  an  indelible 
sanctity  ;  that  their  observance  constitutes  a  Church 
within  the  Church.  If  this  separation  is  once  esta- 
blished, and  the  Jewish  believers  in  Christ  can  be 
induced  to  hold  themselves  aloof  and  to  maintain  the 
"  advantage  of  circumcision,"  the  rest  will  be  easy. 
The  way  will  then  be  open  to  "compel  the  Gentiles  to 
Judaize."  For  unless  they  do  this,  they  must  be  content 
to  remain  on  a  lower  level,  in  a  comparatively  menial 
position,  resembling  that  of  uncircumcised  proselytes  in 
the  Synagogue.  The  circular  of  the  Jerusalem  Council 
may  have  been  interpreted  by  the  Judaists  in  this 
sense,  as  though  it  laid  down  the  terms,  not  of  full  / 
communion  between  Jew  and  Gentile  believers,  buu 
only  of  a  permissive,  secondary  recognition.  At  Antiocn 
the  new  campaign  of  the  Legalists  was  opened,  and 
apparently  with  signal  success.  In  Galatia  and  Corinth 
we  see  it  in  full  progress. 

The  withdrawal  of  Peter  and  the  other  Jews  at 
Antioch  from  the  table  of  the  Gentiles  virtually 
"  compelled "  the  latter  ''to  Judaize."  Not  that  the 
Jewish  Apostle  had  this  intention  in  his  mind.  He 
was  made  the  tool  of  designing  men.  By  "  separating 
himself"  he  virtually  said  to  every  uncircumcised 
brother,  "Stand  by  thyself,  I  am  holier  than  thou." 
Legal  conformity  on  the  part  of  the  Gentiles  was  made 
the  condition  of  their  communion  with  Jewish  Christians 
— a  demand  simply  fatal  to  Christianity.  It  re- 
established the  principle  of  salvation  by  works  in  a 
more  invidious  form.  To  supplement  the  righteousness 
of  faith  by  that  of  law,  meant  to  supplant  it.     To  admit 


ii.  II.I8.]       PAUL  AND  PETER  AT  ANTIOCH.  135 


that  the  Israelite  by  virtue  of  his  legal  observances 
stood  in  a  higher  position  than  "sinners  of  the  Gentiles," 
was  to  stultify  the  doctrine  of  the  cross,  to  make  Christ's 
death  a  gratuitous  sacrifice.  Peter's  error,  pushed  to 
its  logical  consequences,  involved  the  overthrow  of 
the  Gospel.  This  the  Gentile  Apostle  saw  at  a  glance. 
The  situation  was  one  of  imminent  danger.  Paul 
needed  all  his  wisdom,  and  all  his  courage  and  prompti- 
tude to  meet  it. 

It  had  been  Peter's  previous  rule,  since  the  vision  of 
Joppa,  to  lay  aside  Jewish  scruples  of  diet  and  to  live 
in  free  intercourse  with  Gentile  brethren.  He  "was 
wont  to  eat  with  the  Gentiles.  Though  a  born  Jew, 
he  lived  in  Gentile  fashion " — words  unmistakably 
describing  Peter's  general  habit  in  such  circumstances. 
This  Gentile  conformity  of  Peter  was  a  fact  of  no 
small  moment  for  the  Galatian  readers.  It  contravenes 
the  assertion  of  a  radical  divergence  between  Petrine 
and  Pauline  Christianity,  whether  made  by  Ebionites 
or  Baurians. 

The  Jewish  Apostle's  present  conduct  was  an  act 
of  "  dissimulation."  He  was  belying  his  known  con- 
victions, publicly  expressed  and  acted  on  for  years. 
Paul's  challenge  assumes  that  his  fellow-Apostle  is 
acting  insincerely.  And  this  assumption  is  explained 
by  the  account  furnished  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
respecting  Peter's  earlier  relations  with  Gentile 
Christianity  (ch.  x.  i — xi.  18;  xv.  6 — il).  The 
strength  of  Paul's  case  lay  in  the  conscience  of  Peter 
himself.  The  conflict  at  Antioch,  so  often  appealed 
to  in  proof  of  the  rooted  opposition  between  the  two 
Apostles,  in  reality  gives  evidence  to  the  contrary 
effect.  Here  the  maxim  strictly  applies^  Exceptio  probat 
regulam. 


136  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


Peter's  lapse  is  quite  intelligible.  No  man  who 
figures  in  the  New  Testament  is  better  known  to  us. 
Honest,  impulsive,  ready  of  speech,  full  of  contagious 
enthusiasm,  brave  as  a  lion,  firm  as  a  rock  against  open 
enemies,  he  possessed  in  a  high  degree  the  qualities 
which  mark  out  a  leader  of  men.  He  was  of  the  stulT 
of  which  Christ  makes  His  missionary  heroes.  But 
there  was  a  strain  of  weakness  in  Peter's  nature.  He 
was  pliable.  He  was  too  much  at  the  mercy  of  sur- 
roundings. His  denial  of  Jesus  set  this  native  fault 
in  a  light  terribly  vivid  and  humiliating.  It  was  an  act 
of  "dissimulation."  In  his  soul  there  was  a  fervent 
love  to  Christ.  His  zeal  had  brought  him  to  the  place 
of  danger.  But  for  the  moment  he  was  alone.  Public 
opinion  was  all  against  him.  A  panic  fear  seized  his  brave 
heart.  He  forgot  himself;  he  denied  the  Master  whom 
he  loved  more  than  life.  His  courage  had  failed;  never 
his  faith.  "Turned  back  again"  from  his  coward  flight, 
Peter  had  indeed  "  strengthened  his  brethren  "  (Luke 
xxii.  31,  32).  He  proved  a  tower  of  strength  to  the 
infant  Church,  worthy  of  his  cognomen  of  the  rock. 
For  more  than  twenty  years  he  had  stood  unshaken. 
No  name  was  so  honoured  in  the  Church  as  Peter's. 
For  Paul  to  be  compared  to  him  was  the  highest 
possible  distinction. 

And  yet,  after  all  this  lapse  of  time,  and  in  the  midst 
of  so  glorious  a  career,  the  old,  miserable  weakness 
betrays  him  once  more.  How  admonitory  is  the  lesson  ! 
The  sore  long  since  healed  over,  the  infirmity  of  nature 
out  of  which  we  seemed  to  have  been  completely  trained, 
may  yet  break  out  again,  to  our  shame  and  undoing. 
Had  Peter  for  a  moment  forgotten  the  sorrowful  warn- 
ing of  Gethsemane  ?  Be  it  ours  to  "  watch  and  pray, 
lest  we  enter  into  temptation." 


ii.  ii-iS.]       PAUL  AND  PETER  AT  ANTJOCII.  137 

We  have  reason  to  believe  that,  if  Peter  rashly  erred, 
he  freely  acknowledged  his  error,  and  honoured  his 
reprover.  Both  the  Epistles  that  b-jar  his  name,  in 
different  ways,  testify  to  the  high  value  which  their 
author  set  upon  the  teaching  of  "  our  beloved  brother 
Paul."  Tradition  places  the  two  men  at  Rome  side  by 
side  in  their  last  days  ;  as  though  even  in  their  death 
these  glorious  Apostles  should  not  be  divided,  despite 
the  attempts  of  faction  and  mistrust  to  separate  them. 

Few  incidents  exhibit  more  strongly  than  this  the 
grievous  consequences  that  may  ensue  from  a  seemingly 
trivial  moral  error.  It  looked  a  little  thing  that  Peter 
should  prefer  to  take  his  meals  away  from  Gentile 
company.  And  yet,  as  Paul  tells  him,  his  withdrawal 
was  a  virtual  rejection  of  the  Gospel,  and  imperilled 
the  most  vital  interests  of  Christianity.  By  this  act 
the  Jewish  Apostle  gave  a  handle  to  the  adversaries 
of  the  Church  which  they  have  used  for  generations 
and  for  ages  afterwards.  The  dispute  which  it  occa- 
sioned could  never  be  forgotten.  In  the  second  century 
it  still  drew  down  on  Paul  the  bitter  reproaches  of  the 
Judaizing  faction.  And  in  our  own  day  the  rationalistic 
critics  have  been  able  to  turn  it  to  marvellous  account. 
It  supplies  the  corner-stone  of  their  "scientific  recon- 
struction "  of  Biblical  theology.  The  entire  theory  of 
Baur  is  evolved  out  of  Peter's  blunder.  Let  it  be 
granted  that  Peter  in  yielding  to  the  "  certain  from 
James  "  followed  his  genuine  convictions  and  the  tra- 
dition of  Jewish  Christianity,  and  we  see  at  once  how 
deep  a  gulf  lay  between  Paul  and  the  Primitive  Church. 
All  that  Paul  argues  in  the  subsequent  discussion  only 
tends,  in  this  case,  to  make  the  breach  more  visible. 
This  false  step  of  Peter  is  the  thing  that  chiefly 
lends  a  colour  to  the  theory  in  question,  with  all  the 


138  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


far-reaching  consequences  touching  the  origin  and 
import  of  Christianity,  which  it  involves.  So  long 
"  the  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them  "  ! 

Paul's  rebuke  of  his  brother  Apostle  extends  to  the 
conclusion  of  the  chapter.  Some  interpreters  cut  it 
short  at  the  end  of  ver.  14;  others  at  ver.  16;  others 
again  at  ver.  18.  But  the  address  is  consecutive  and 
germane  to  the  occasion  throughout.  Paul  does  not, 
to  be  sure,  give  a  verbatim  report,  but  the  substance  of 
what  he  said,  and  in  a  form  suited  to  his  readers.  The 
narrative  is  an  admirable  prelude  to  the  argument  of 
chap.  iii.  It  forms  the  transition  from  the  historical 
to  the  polemical  part  of  the  Epistle,  from  the  Apostle's 
personal  to  his  doctrinal  apology.  The  condensed 
form  of  the  speech  makes  its  interpretation  difficult  and 
much  contested.  We  shall  in  the  remainder  of  this 
Chapter  trace  the  general  course  of  Paul's  reproof,  pro- 
posing in  the  following  Chapter  to  deal  more  fully  with 
its  doctrinal  contents. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  Paul  taxes  the  Jewish  Apostle 
with  insincerity  and  unfaithfulness  toward  the  gospel. 
*'  I  saw,"  he  says,  "  that  they  were  not  holding  a  straight 
course,  according  to  the  truth  of  the  gospel." 

It  is  a  moral,  not  a  doctrinal  aberration,  that  Paul 
lays  at  the  door  of  Cephas  and  Barnabas.  They  did  not 
hold  a  different  creed  from  himself;  they  were  disloyal 
to  the  common  creed.  They  swerved  from  the  path  of 
rectitude  in  which  they  had  walked  hitherto.  They 
had  regard  no  longer  to  "  the  truth  of  the  gospel " — 
the  supreme  consideration  of  the  servant  of  Christ — 
but  to  the  favour  of  men,  to  the  public  opinion  of 
Jerusalem.  ''What  will  be  said  of  us  there  ?^'  they 
whispered  to  each  other,  "  if  these  messengers  of  James 
report  that  we  are  discarding  the  sacred  customs,  and 


ii.  Ii-i8.]        PAUL   AND   PETER   AT  ANTfOCH.  130 

making  no  difference  between  Jew  and  Gentile?  We 
shall  alienate  our  Judean  brethren.  We  shall  bring  a 
scandal  on  the  Christian  cause  in  the  eyes  of  Judaism." 

This  withdrawal  of  the  Jews  from  the  common  fellow- 
ship at  Antioch  was  a  public  matter.  It  was  an  injury 
to  the  whole  Gentile-Christian  community.  If  the 
reproof  was  to  be  salutary,  it  must  be  equally  public 
and  explicit.  The  offence  was  notorious.  Every  one 
deplored  it,  except  those  who  shared  it,  or  profited  by 
it.  Cephas  "stood  condemned."  And  yet  his  influ- 
ence and  the  reverence  felt  toward  him  were  so  great, 
that  no  one  dared  to  put  this  condemnation  into  words. 
His  sanction  was  of  itself  enough  to  give  to  this 
sudden  recrudescence  of  Jewish  bigotry  the  force  of 
authoritative  usage.  "  The  truth  of  the  gospel  "  was 
again  in  jeopardy.  Once  more  Paul's  intervention 
foiled  the  attempts  of  the  Judaizers  and  saved  Gentile 
liberties.  And  this  time  he  stood  quite  alone.  Even 
the  faithful  Barnabas  deserted  him.  But  what  mattered 
that,  if  Christ  and  truth  were  on  his  side  ?  Amicus 
Cephas,  amicus  Barnabas;  sed  magis  amicus  Veritas. 
Solitary  amid  the  circle  of  opposing  or  dissembling 
Jews,  Paul  ''  withstood  "  the  chief  of  the  Apostles  of 
Jesus  "  to  the  face."  He  rebuked  him  "  before  them 
all." 

II.  Peter's  conduct  is  reproved  by  Paul  in  the  light 
of  their  common  knowledge  of  salvation  in  Christ. 

Paul  is  not  content  with  pointing  out  the  inconsis- 
tency of  his  brother  Apostle.  He  must  probe  the 
matter  to  the  bottom.  He  will  bring  Peter's  delinquency 
to  the  touchstone  of  the  Gospel,  in  its  fundamental 
principles.  So  he  passes  in  ver.  15  from  the  outward 
to  the  inward,  from  the  circumstances  of  Peter's  con- 
duct to  the  inner  world  of  spiritual  consciousness,  in 


140  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATJANS. 

which  his  offence  finds  its  deeper  condemnation. 
"  You  and  I,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  "  not  Gentile  sinners, 
but  men  of  Jewish  birth — yet  for  all  that,  knowing 
that  there  is  no  justification  for  man  in  works  of  law, 
only  *  through  faith  in  Christ — we  too  put  our  faith  in 
Christ,  in  order  to  be  justified  by  faith  in  Him,  not  by 
works  of  law ;  for  as  Scripture  taught  us,  in  that  way 
no  flesh  will  be  justified." 

Paul  makes  no  doubt  that  the  Jewish  Apostle's 
experience  of  salvation  corresponded  with  his  own. 
Doubtless,  in  their  previous  intercourse,  and  especially 
when  he  first  ''made  acquaintance  with  Cephas"  (ch.  i, 
1 8)  in  Jerusalem,  the  hearts  of  the  two  men  had  been 
opened  to  each  other;  and  they  had  found  that,  although 
brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  in  different  ways, 
yet  in  the  essence  of  the  matter — in  respect  of  the 
personal  conviction  of  sin,  in  the  yielding  up  of  self- 
righteousness  and  native  pride,  in  the  abandonment  of 
every  prop  and  trust  but  Jesus  Christ — their  history 
had  run  the  same  course,  and  face  answ^ered  to  face. 
Yes,  Paul  knew  that  he  had  an  ally  in  the  heart  of 
his  friend.  He  was  not  fighting  as  one  that  beateth 
the  air,  not  making  a  rhetorical  flourish,  or  a  parade 
of  some  favourite  doctrine  of  his  own ;  he  appealed 
from  Peter  dissembling  to  Peter  faithful  and  consistent. 
Peter's  dissimulation  was  a  return  to  the  Judaic  ground 
of  legal  righteousness.  By  refusing  to  eat  with  un- 
circumcised  men,  he  affirmed  implicitly  that,  though 
believers  in  Christ,  they  were  still  to  him  "common  and 
unclean,"  that  the  Mosaic  rites  imparted  a  higher 
sanctity  than  the    righteousness   of   faith.       Now  the 

*  ikv  fxT)  has  the  same  partially  exceptive  force  as  el  /xt/  in  ch.  i.  7, 
19.     Ctnip.  Kom.  xiv.  14 ;  also  Luke  iv.  26,  27. 


ii.  II-I8.]        PAUL  AND  PETER  AT  ANTIOCH.  141 


principles  of  evangelical  and  legal  righteousness,  of 
salvation  by  faith  and  by  law-works,  are  diametrically 
opposed.  It  is  logically  impossible  to  maintain  both. 
Peter  had  long  ago  accepted  the  former  doctrine.  He 
had  sought  salvation,  just  like  any  Gentile  sinner,  on 
the  common  ground  of  human  guilt,  and  with  a  faith 
that  renounced  every  consideration  of  Jewish  privilege 
and  legal  performance.  By  what  right  can  any  Hebrew 
believer  in  Christ,  after  this,  set  himself  above  his 
Gentile  brother,  or  presume  to  be  by  virtue  of  his 
circumcision  and  ritual  law-keeping  a  holier  man  ? 
Such  we  take  to  be  the  import  of  Paul's  challenge 
in  vv.    15,   16. 

III.  Paul  is  met  at  this  point  by  the  stock  objection 
to  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith — an  objection 
brought  forward  in  the  dispute  at  Antioch  not,  we 
should  imagine,  by  Peter  himself,  but  by  the  Judaistic 
advocates.  To  renounce  legal  righteousness  was  in  effect^ 
they  urged,  to  promote  sin — nay,  to  make  Christ  Himself 
a  minister  of  sin  (ver.  17). 

Paul  retorts  the  charge  on  those  who  make  it.  They 
promote  sin,  he  declares,  who  set  up  legal  righteousness 
again  (ver.  18).  The  objection  is  stated  and  met  in  the 
form  of  question  and  answer,  as  in  Rom.  iii.  5.  We 
have  in  this  sharp  thrust  and  parry  an  example  of  the 
sort  of  fence  which  Paul  must  often  have  carried  on 
in  his  discussions  with  Jewish  opponents  on  these 
questions. 

We  must  not  overlook  the  close  verbal  connection 
of  these  verses  with  the  two  last.  The  phrase  "  seek- 
ing to  be  justified  in  Christ"  carries  us  back  to  the  timfe 
when  the  two  Apostles,  self-condemned  sinners, 
severally  sought  and  found  a  new  ground  of  righteous- 
ness in   Him.     Now  when   Peter  and   Paul  did  this, 


142  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


they  were  "  themselves  also  found  *  to  be  sinners," — 
an  experience  how  abasing  to  their  Jewish  pride ! 
They  made  the  great  discovery  that  stripped  them  of 
legal  merit,  and  brought  them  down  in  their  own  esteem 
to  the  level  of  common  sinners.  Peter's  confession  may 
stand  for  both,  when  he  said,  abashed  by  the  glory  of 
Christ,  "  Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O 
Lord."  Now  this  style  of  penitence,  this  profound 
self-abasement  in  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  revolted 
the  Jewish  moralist.  To  Pharisaic  sentiment  it  was 
contemptible.  If  justification  by  faith  requires  this, 
if  it  brings  the  Jew  to  so  abject  a  posture  and  makes 
no  difference  between  lawless  and  law-keeping,  be- 
tween pious  children  of  Abraham  and  heathen  outcasts 
— if  this  be  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  all  moral  distinctions 
are  confounded,  and  Christ  is  *^  a  minister  of  sin  !  " 
This  teaching  robs  the  Jew  of  the  righteousness  he 
before  possessed  ;  it  takes  from  him  the  benefit  and 
honour  that  God  bestowed  upon  his  race  !  So,  we 
doubt  not,  many  a  Jew  was  heard  angrily  exclaiming 
against  the  Pauline  doctrine,  both  at  Antioch  and  else- 
where. This  conclusion  was,  in  the  view  of  the 
Legalist,  a  rediiciio  ad  absurdttm  of  Paulinism. 

The  Apostle  repels  this  inference  with  the  indignant 
fir)  ryevoLTO,  Far  he  it!  His  reply  is  indicated  by  the 
very  form  in  which  he  puts  the  question :  "  If  we  were 
found  sinners  "  (Christ  did  not  make  us  such).  **  The 
complaint  was  this,"  as  Calvin  finely  says :  "  Has 
Christ  therefore  come  to  take  away  from  us  the  right- 
eousness of  the  Law,  to  make  us  polluted  who  were 
holy  ?     Nay,  Paul  says  ; — he  repels  the  blasphemy  with 

*  For  this  emphatic  found,  describing  a  process  of  moral  conviction 
and  inward  discovery,  comp.  Rom.  vii.  lo,  i8,  21  ;  the  whole  passage 
strikingly  illustrates  the  reminiscence  of  our  text. 


ii.  ii-iS.]        PAUL  AND   PETER  AT  ANTIOCH.  143 


detestation.  For  Christ  did  not  introduce  sin,  but 
revealed  it.  He  did  not  rob  them  of  righteousness, 
but  of  the  false  shaw  thereof."  *  The  reproach  of  the 
Judaizers  was  in  reality  the  same  that  is  urged  against 
evangelical  doctrine  still — that  it  is  immoral,  placing 
the  virtuous  and  vicious  in  the  common  category  of 
"  sinners." 

Ver.  18  throws  back  the  charge  of  promoting  sin 
upon  the  Legalist.  It  is  the  counterpart,  not  of  ver.  19, 
but  rather  of  ver.  17.  The  "transgressor"  is  the  sinner 
in  a  heightened  and  more  specific  sense,  one  who 
breaks  known  and  admitted  law.  t  This  word  bears, 
in  Paul's  vocabulary,  a  precise  and  strongly  marked 
signification  which  is  not  satisfied  by  the  common  in- 
terpretation. It  is  not  that  Peter  in  setting  up  the 
Law  which  he  had  in  principle  overthrown,  puts,  him- 
self in  the  wrong ;  nor  that  Peter  in  re-establishing  the 
Law,  contradicts  the  purpose  of  the  Law  itself  (Chry- 
sostom,  Lightfoot,  Beet).  This  is  to  anticipate  the 
next  verse.  In  Paul's  view  and  according  to  the 
experience  common  to  Peter  with  himself,  law  and 
transgression  are  concomitant,  every  man  ''under  law" 
is  ipso  facto  a  transgressor.  He  who  sets  up  the  first, 
constitutes  himself  the  second.  And  this  is  what  Peter 
is  now  doing ;  although  Paul  courteously  veils  the 
fact  by  putting  it  hypothetically,  in  the  first  person.  \ 
After  dissolving,  so  far  as  in  him  lay,  the  validity  of 
legal  righteousness  and  breaking  down  the  edifice  of 
justification   by   works,    Peter  is   now    building    it    up 

*   Commentarii.  in  loc. 

t  See  Grimm's  Lexicon,  or  Trench's  ^V.  T.  Synonyms,  on  this  word. 
Comp.  ch.  iii.  19;  Rom.  ii.  23— 27  ;  iv.  15;  v.  14. 

X  Tlie  /  of  this  sentence  is  quite  indefinite.  On  the  other  haud 
ver.  19,  witli  its  emphatic  ^7w7dp,  brin<;sus  into  a  new  vein  of  thought. 


144  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

again,  and  thereby  constructing  a  prison-house  for 
himself.  Returning  to  legal  allegiance,  he  returns  to 
legal  condemnation ;  *  with  his  own  hands  he  puts  on 
his  neck  the  burden  of  the  Law's  curse,  which  through 
faith  in  Christ  he  had  cast  off.  By  this  act  of  timid 
conformity  he  seeks  to  commend  himself  to  Jewish 
opinion  ;  but  it  only  serves,  in  the  hght  of  the  Gospel, 
to  "prove  him  a  transgressor,"  to  "  commend "  f  him 
in  that  unhappy  character.  This  is  Paul's  retort  to  the 
imputation  of  the  Judaist.  It  carries  the  war  into  the 
enemies'  camp.  "  No,"  says  Paul,  ^^ Christ  is  no  patron 
of  sin,  in  bidding  men  renounce  legal  righteousness. 
But  those  prom.ote  sin  — in  themselves  first  of  all — who 
after  knowing  His  righteousness,  turn  back  again  to 
legalism." 

IV.  The  conviction  of  Peter  is  now  complete.  From 
the  sad  bondage  to  w'hich  the  Jewish  Apostle,  by  his 
compliance  with  the  Judaizers,  was  preparing  to  sub- 
mit himself,  the  Apostle  turns  to  his  own  joyous  sense  oj 
deliverance  (yw.  19 — 21).  Those  who  resort  to  legalism, 
he  has  said,  ensure  their  own  condemnation.  It  is, 
on  the  other  hand,  by  an  entire  surrender  to  Christ,  by 
realizing  the  import  of  His  death,  that  we  learn  to 
"  live  unto  God."  So  Paul  had  proved  it.  At  this 
moment  he  is  conscious  of  a  union  with  the  crucified 
and  living  Saviour,  which  lifts  him  above  the  curse  of 
the  law,  above  the  power  of  sin.  To  revert  to  the 
Judaistic  state,  to  dream  any  more  of  earning  righteous- 
ness by  legal  ccnfcrmity,  is  a  thing  for  him  incon- 
ceivable. It  would  be  to  make  void  the  cross  of 
Christ ! 

And  it  was  the  Law  itself  that  first  impelled  Paul 

*  Comp.  ch.  iii.  ic — 12.  19  :  Rom.  iii.  20  ;  iv.  15. 
f  This  veib  has,  as  ScIk  tt  suggests,  a  tinge  of  irony. 


ii.  n-iS.]       PAUL  Al^D  PETER  AT  ANTIOCH.  145 


along  this  path.  '^Through  law"  he  "died  to  law." 
The  Law  drove  him  from  itself  to  seek  salvation  in 
Jesus  Christ.  Its  accusations  allowed  him  no  shelter, 
left  him  no  secure  spot  on  which  to  build  the  edifice  of 
his  self-righteousness.  It  said  to  him  unceasingly, 
Thou  art  a  transgressor.*  He  who  seeks  justification 
by  its  means  contradicts  the  Law,  while  he  frustrates 
the  grace  of  God. 

•  Rom.  vii.  7 — viii.  I. 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  AT  STAKE. 

"For  I  through  law  died  unto  law,  that  I  might  live  unto  God.  I 
have  been  crucified  with  Christ ;  and  it  is  no  longer  I  that  live,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me  :  and  that  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live 
in  faith,  the  faith  which  is  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me,  and 
gave  Himself  up  for  me.  I  do  not  make  void  the  grace  of  God  : 
for  if  righteousness  is  through  law,  then  Christ  died  for  nought " — 
Gal.  ii.  19 — 21. 

PAUL'S  personal  apology  is  ended.  He  has  proved 
his  Apostolic  independence,  and  made  good  his 
declaration,  "  My  Gospel  is  not  according  to  man."  If 
he  owed  his  commission  to  any  man,  it  was  to  Peter ; 
so  his  traducers  persistently  alleged.  He  has  shown 
that,  first  without  Peter,  then  in  equality  with  Peter,  and 
finally  in  spite  of  Peter,  he  had  received  and  maintained 
it.  Similarly  in  regard  to  James  and  the  Jerusalem 
Church.  Without  their  mediation  Paul  commenced  his 
work  ;  when  that  work  was  challenged,  they  could  only 
approve  it ;  and  when  afterwards  men  professing  to  act 
in  their  name  disturbed  his  work,  the  Apostle  had 
repelled  them.  He  acted  all  along  under  the  conscious- 
ness of  a  trust  in  the  gospel  committed  to  him  directly 
by  Jesus  Christ,  and  an  authority  in  its  administration 
second  to  none  upon  earth.  And  events  had  justified 
this  confidence. 


h.  19-21.]  THE  PRINCIPLES  AT  STAKE.  147 

Paul  is  compelled  to  say  ail  this  about  himself.  The 
vindication  of  his  ministry  is  forced  from  him  by  the 
calumnies  of  false  brethren.  From  the  time  of  the 
conference  at  Jerusalem,  and  still  more  since  he  with- 
stood Peter  at  Antioch,  he  had  been  a  mark  for  the 
hatred  of  the  Judaizing  faction.  He  was  the  chief 
obstacle  to  tlieir  success.  Twice  he  had  foiled  them, 
when  they  counted  upon  victory.  They  had  now  set 
on  foot  a  systematic  agitation  against  him,  with  its 
head-quarters  at  Jerusalem,  carried  on  under  some  pre- 
text of  sanction  from  the  authorities  of  the  Church  there. 
At  Corinth  and  in  Galatia  the  legalist  emissaries  had 
appeared  simultaneously ;  they  pursued  in  the  main  the 
same  policy,  adapting  it  to  the  character  and  disposition 
of  the  two  Churches,  and  appealing  with  no  little  suc- 
cess to  the  Jewish  predilections  common  even  amongst 
Gentile  believers  in  Christ. 

In  this  controversy  Paul  and  the  gospel  he  preached 
were  bound  together.  "  I  am  set,"  he  says,  ''  for  the 
defence  of  the  gospel"  (Ph.  i.  16).  He  was  the  cham- 
pion of  the  cross,  the  impersonation  of  the  principle  of 
salvation  by  faith.  It  is  ''  the  gospel  of  Christ,"  the 
"  truth  of  the  gospel,"  he  reiterates,  that  is  at  stake. 
If  he  wards  off  blows  falling  upon  him,  it  is  because 
they  are  aimed  through  him  at  the  truth  for  which  he 
lives — nay,  at  Christ  who  lives  in  him.  In  his  self- 
assertion  there  is  no  note  of  pride  or  personal  anxiety. 
Never  was  there  a  man  more  completely  lost  in  the 
greatness  of  a  great  cause,  nor  who  felt  himself  in  com- 
parison with  it  more  worthless.  But  that  cause  has 
lifted  Paul  with  it  to  imperishable  glory.  Of  all  names 
named  on  earth,  none  stands  nearer  than  his  to  that 
which  is  "  above  every  name." 

While   Paul  in  ch.  i.  and  ii     is   busy  with  his  own 


148  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


vindication,  he  is  meantime  behind  the  personal  defence 
preparing  the  doctrinal  argument.  His  address  to  Peter 
is  an  incisive  outline  of  the  gospel  of  grace.  The  three 
closing  verses — the  XpiaTM  avvearavpcofiat  in  par- 
ticular— are  the  heart  of  Paul's  theology — summa  ac 
medulla  Christianismi  (Bengel).  Such  a  testimony  was 
the  Apostle's  best  defence  before  his  audience  at 
Antioch  ;  it  was  the  surest  means  of  touching  the  heart 
of  Peter  and  convincing  him  of  his  error.  And  its  re- 
cital was  admirably  calculated  to  enlighten  the  Galatians 
as  to  the  true  bearing  of  this  dispute  which  had  been 
so  much  misrepresented.  From  ver.  15  onwards,  Paul 
has  been  all  the  while  addressing,  under  the  person 
of  Peter,  the  conscience  of  his  readers,*  and  paving  the 
way  for  the  assault  that  he  makes  upon  them  with  so 
much  vigour  in  the  first  verses  of  ch.  iii.  Read  in 
the  light  of  the  foregoing  narrative,  this  passage  is  a 
compendium  of  the  Pauline  Gospel,  invested  with  the 
peculiar  interest  that  belongs  to  a  confession  of  personal 
faith,  made  at  a  signal  crisis  in  the  author's  life.  Let 
us  examine  this  momentous  declaration. 

I.  At  the  foundation  of  Paul's  theology  lies  his 
conception  of  the  grace  of  God. 

Grace  is  the  Apostle's  watchword.  The  word  occurs 
twice  as  often  in  his  Epistles  as  it  does  in  the  rest  of 
the  New  Testament.  Outside  the  Pauline  Luke  and 
Hebrews,  and  I  Peter  with  its  large  infusion  of  Paulin- 
ism,  it  is  exceedingly  rare.j  In  this  word  the  character, 
spirit,   and   aim   of  the  revelation  of  Christ,  as   Paul 

*  Hofmann  is  so  far  right  when  he  makes  the  Apostle  turn  to  the 
Galatians  in  ch.  ii.  15,  and  draws  at  this  point  the  line  between  the 
historical  and  doctrinal  sections  of  the  Epistle. 

f  What  is  said  of  x^P'-'^i  applies  also  to  its  derivatives,  ;ta/)ti'o/*ai, 

K.T.X. 


ii.  19-21.]  rilE  PRINCIPLES  AT  STAKE.  149 


understood  it,  a;e  summed  up.  ''The  grace  of  God" 
is  the  touchstone  to  which  Peter's  dissimulation  is 
finally  brought.  Christ  is  the  embodiment  of  Divine 
grace — above  all,  in  His  death.  So  that  it  is  one  and 
the  same  thing  to  "  bring  to  nought  the  grace  of  God," 
and  "  the  death  of  Christ."  Hence  God's  grace  is  called 
"the  grace  of  Christ," — "of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
From  Romans  to  Titus  and  Philemon,  "grace  reigns" 
in  every  Epistle.  No  one  can  counterfeit  this  mark  of 
Paul,  or  speak  of  grace  in  his  style  and  accent. 

God's  grace  is  not  His  love  alone;  it  is  redeeming 
love — love  poured  out  upon  the  undeserving,  love 
coming  to  seek  and  save  the  lost,  "bringing  salvation 
to  all  men"  (Rom.  v.  I — 8;  Tit.  ii.  ii).  Grace  decreed 
redemption,  made  the  sacrifice,  proclaims  the  recon- 
ciliation, provides  and  bestows  the  new  sonship  of  the 
Spirit,  and  schools  its  children  into  all  the  habits  of 
godliness  and  virtue  that  beseem  their  regenerate  life, 
which  it  brings  finally  to  its  consummation  in  the  life 
eternal.* 

Grace  in  God  is  therefore  the  antithesis  ot  sin  in 
fitan,  counterworking  and  finally  triumphing  over  it. 
Grace  belongs  to  the  last  Adam  as  eminently  as  sin  to 
the  first.  The  later  thoughts  of  the  Apostle  on  this 
theme  are  expressed  in  Tit.  iii.  4 — 7,  a  passage  singu- 
larly rich  in  its  description  of  the  working  of  Divine 
grace  on  human  nature.  "  We  were  senseless,"  he 
says,  "  disobedient,  w^andering  in  error,  in  bondage  to 
lusts  and  pleasures  of  many  kinds,  living  in  envy  and 
malice,  hateful,  hating  each  other.  But  when  the  kind- 
ness and  love  to  man  of  our  Saviour  God  shone  forth," — 
then  all  was  changed  :  "  not  by  works  wrought  in  our 

*  Eph.  I.  5- -9;  2  Tim.  i.  9;  Kom.  iii.  24;  Ileb.  ii.  9;  2  Cor.  v.  20 — 
vi.  i;  Gal.  iv.  5  ;  Tit.  iii.  5—  7;  ii.  II— 14;    Rom.  v.  21. 


I50  THE  EPISTLE   TO    THE   GALATIANS. 

own  righteousness,  but  according  to  His  mercy  He 
saved  us,  through  the  washing  of  regeneration  and  re- 
newing of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that,  justified  by  His  grace, 
we  might  be  made  heirs  in  hope  of  life  eternal."  The 
vision  of  the  grace  of  God  drives  stubbornness,  lust,  and 
hatred  from  the  soul.  It  brings  about,  for  man  and 
for  society,  the  palingenesia,  the  new  birth  of  Creation, 
rolling  back  the  tide  of  evil  and  restoring  the  golden 
age  of  peace  and  innocence  ;  and  crowns  the  joy  of  a 
renovated  earth  with  the  glories  of  a  recovered  heaven. 
Being  the  antagonist  of  sin,  grace  comes  of  necessity 
into  contrast  with  the  law.  Law  is  intrinsically  the 
opposer  of  sin  ;  sin  is  "  lawlessness,"  with  Paul  as 
much  as  with  John.*  But  law  was  powerless  to  cope 
with  sin  :  it  was  "  weak  through  the  flesh."  Instead 
of  crushing  sin,  the  interposition  of  law  served  to 
inflame  and  stimulate  it,  to  bring  into  play  its  latent 
energy,  reducing  the  man  most  loyally  disposed  to 
moral  despair.  ''  By  the  law  therefore  is  the  knowledge 
of  sin ;  it  worketh  out  wrath."  Inevitably,  it  makes 
men  transgressors ;  it  brings  upon  them  an  inward 
condemnation,  a  crushing  sense  of  the  Divine  anger 
and  hostility.!.  That  is  all  that  law  can  do  by  itself. 
*^  Holy  and  just  and  good,"  notwithstanding,  to  our 
perverse  nature  it  becomes  </^fl//j  (Rom.  vii.  13;  i  Cor. 
XV.  56).  It  is  actually  "the  strength  of  sin,"  lending 
itself  to  extend  and  confirm  its  power.  We  find  in  it 
a  "law  of  sin  and  death."  So  that  to  be  "under  law^  " 
and  "  under  grace  "  are  two  opposite  and  mutually  ex- 
clusive states.  In  the  latter  condition  only  is  sin  "  no 
longer  our  lord  "  (Rom.  vi.  14).  Peter  and  the  Jews 
of  Antioch  therefore,  in  building  up  the  legal  principle 

•  Rom.  vii.  12,  14;  2  Thess.  ii.  4 — 8;  comp.  i  John  iii.  4. 

t  Rom.  iii.  20;  iv.  15;  v.  20;  vii.  5,  24;  Gal.  ii.  16     iii.  10,  ii,  19. 


ii.  19-21.]  THE  PRINCIPLES  AT  STAKE.  151 

again,  were  in  truth  "abolishing  the  grace  of  God."  It 
the  Galatians  follow  their  example,  Paul  warns  them  that 
they  will  "  fall  from  grace."  Accepting  circumcision, 
they  become  "debtors  to  perform  the  whole  law," — and 
that  means  transgression  and  the  curse  (ch.  v.  I — 4; 
iii.  10 — 12  ;  ii.  16 — 18). 

While  sin  is  the  reply  which  man's  nature  makes  to 
the  demands  of  law,  Jailh  is  the  response  elicited  by 
grace;  it  is  the  door  of  the  heart  opening  to  grace.* 
Grace  and  Faith  go  hand  in  hand,  as  Law  and  Trans- 
gression. Limiting  the  domain  of  faith,  Peter  virtually 
denied  the  sovereignty  of  grace.  He  belied  his  con- 
fession made  at  the  Council  of  Jerusalem  :  "  By  the  grace 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  we  trust  to  be  saved,  even  as  the 
Gentiles"  (Acts  xv.  ii).  With  Law  are  joined  such 
terms  as  Works,  Debt,  Reward,  Glorying,  proper  to  a 
"righteousness  of  one's  own."t  With  Grace  we  asso- 
ciate Gift,  Promise,  Predestination,  Call,  Election,  Adop- 
tion, Inheritance,  belonging  to  the  dialect  of  "  the  right- 
eousness which  is  of  God  by  faith."  \  Grace  operates 
in  the  region  of  "the  Spirit,"  making  for  freedom  ;  but 
law,  however  spiritual  in  origin,  has  come  to  seek  its 
accomplishment  in  the  sphere  of  the  flesh,  where  it 
"  gcndereth  to  bondage"  (ch.  iv.  23 — v.  5  ;  2  Cor.  iii. 
6,  17). 

Grace  appears,  however,  in  another  class  of  passages 
in  Paul's  Epistles,  of  which  ch.  i.  15,  ii.  9  are 
examples.  To  the  Divine  grace  Paul  ascribes  his 
personal  salvation  and  Apostolic  call.  The  revelation 
which  made  him  a  Christian  and  an  Apostle,  was  above 

•  Rom.  iii.  24,  25  ;  Eph.  ii.  8  ;  etc. 
t  Rom  iv,  I — 4  ;  xi.  6  ;  Gal  ii.  16  ;  iii.  12. 

J  Rom.   iv.    16;    viii.    28— 39;    xi.    5;  Kph.    i.    4 — 6;    Tit.    iii.    7/ 
Acts  x.\.  32  ;  Gal.  iii.  18  :  ol  iirayyeXias  Kfxo-piarai  6  6fus. 


152  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 


all  things  a  manifestation  of  grace.  Wearing  this 
aspect,  "the  glory  of  God"  appeared  to  him  **in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ."  The  splendour  that  blinded  and 
overwhelmed  Saul  on  his  way  to  Damascus,  was  "  the 
glory  of  His  grace."  The  voice  of  Jesus  that  fell  on 
the  persecutor's  ear  spoke  in  the  accents  of  grace.  No 
scourge  of  the  Law,  no  thunders  of  Sinai,  could  have 
smitten  down  the  proud  Pharisee,  and  beaten  or 
scorched  out  of  him  his  strong  self-will,  like  the  com- 
plaint of  Jesus.  All  the  circumstances  tended  to  stamp 
upon  his  soul,  fused  into  penitence  in  that  hour,  the  in- 
effaceable impression  of  ^*  the  grace  of  God  and  of  our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  Such  confessions  as  those  of 
I  Cor.  XV.  8 — lO,  and  Eph.  ii.  7,  iii.  7,  8,  show  how  con- 
stantly this  remembrance  was  present  with  the  Apostle 
Paul  and  suffused  his  views  of  revelation,  giving  to  his 
ministry  its  peculiar  tenderness  of  humility  and  ardour 
of  gratitude.  This  sentiment  of  boundless  obligation 
to  the  grace  of  God,  with  its  pervasive  effect  upon  the 
Pauline  doctrine,  is  strikingly  expressed  in  the  doxology 
of  I  Tim.  i.  II — 17, — words  which  it  is  almost  a 
sacrilege  to  put  into  the  mouth  of  ?ifalsarius :  "Accord- 
ing to  the  gospel  of  the  glory  of  the  blessed  God, 
wherewith  /  was  intrusted,  .  .  .  who  was  aforetime  a 
blasphemer  and  persecutor.  .  .  But  the  grace  of  our 
Lord  abounded  even  more  exceedingly.  Faithful  is 
the  saying,  worthy  to  be  received  of  all,  '  Christ  Jesus 
came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners' — of  whom  /  am 
chief.  ...  In  me  as  chief  Christ  Jesus  showed  forth 
all  His  long-suffering.  .  .  Now  to  the  King  of  the 
ages  be  honour  and  glory  for  ever.  Amen."  Who, 
reading  the  Apostle's  story,  does  not  echo  that  Amen  ? 
No  wonder  that  Paul  became  the  Apostle  oi  grace  ;  even 
as  John,   "  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,"  must  per- 


ii.  19-21.]  THE  PRINCIPLES  AT  STAKE.  153 


force  be  the  Apostle  of  love.  First  to  him  was  God's 
grace  revealed  in  its  largest  affluence,  that  through  him 
it  might  be  known  to  all  men  and  to  all  ages. 

II.  Side  by  side  with  the  grace  of  God,  we  find  in 
ver.  21  the  death  of  Christ.  He  sets  aside  the  former, 
the  Apostle  argues,  who  by  admitting  legal  righteous- 
ness nullifies  the  latter. 

While  grace  embodies  Paul's  fundamental  conception 
of  the  Divine  character,  the  death  of  Christ  is  the 
fundamental  fact  in  which  that  character  manifests 
itself.  So  the  cross  becomes  the  centre  of  Paul's 
theology.  But  it  was,  in  the  first  place,  the  basis  of 
his  personal  life.  *'  Faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  who 
loved  me  and  gave  Himself  up  for  me,"  is  the  founda- 
tion of  "  the  life  he  now  lives  in  the  flesh." 

Here  lay  the  stumbling-block  of  Judaism.  Theocratic 
pride,  Pharisaic  tradition,  could  not,  as  we  say,  get 
over  it.  A  crucified  Messiah  !  How  revolting  the  bare 
idea.  But  when,  as  in  Paul's  case,  Judaistic  pride  did 
surmount  this  huge  scandal  and  in  spite  of  the  offence 
of  the  cross  arrive  at  faith  in  Jesus,  it  was  at  the  cost 
of  a  severe  fall.  It  was  broken  in  pieces, — destroyed 
once  and  for  ever.  With  the  elder  Apostles  the  change 
had  been  more  gradual  ;  they  were  never  steeped  in 
Judaism  as  Saul  was.  For  him  to  accept  the  faith  of 
Jesus  was  a  revolution  the  most  complete  and  drastic 
possible.  As  a  Jiidaist,  the  preaching  of  the  cross 
was  an  outrage  on  his  faith  and  his  Messianic  hopes  ; 
now  it  was  that  which  most  of  all  subdued  and 
entranced  him.  Its  power  was  extreme,  whether  to 
attract  or  repel.  The  more  he  had  loathed  and  mocked 
at  it  before,  the  more  he  is  bound  henceforth  to  exalt 
the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  A  proof  of  the 
Divine  anger  against  the  Nazarcne  he  had  once  deemed 


154  TilE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


it ;  now  he  sees  in  it  the  token  of  God's  grace  in  Him 
to  the  whole  world. 

For  Paul  therefore  the  death  of  Christ  imported  the 
end  of  Judaism.  *'  I  died  to  law/'  he  writes, — *'  I  am 
crucified  with  Christ."  Once  understanding  what  this 
death  meant,  and  realising  his  own  relation  to  it,  on 
every  account  it  was  impossible  to  go  back  to  Legalism. 
The  cross  barred  all  return.  The  law  that  put  Him, 
the  sinless  One,  to  death,  could  give  no  life  to  sinful 
men.  The  Judaism  that  pronounced  His  doom,  doomed 
itself.  Who  would  make  peace  with  it  over  the 
Saviour's  blood  ?  From  the  moment  that  Paul  knew 
the  truth  about  the  death  of  Jesus,  he  had  done  with 
Judaism  for  ever.  Henceforth  he  knew  nothing — 
cherished  no  belief  or  sentiment,  acknowledged  no 
maxim,  no  tradition,  which  did  not  conform  itself  to 
His  death.  The  world  to  which  he  had  belonged 
died^  self-slain,  when  it  slew  Him.  From  Christ's 
grave  a  new  world  was  rising,  for  which  alone  Paul 
lived. 

But  why  should  the  grace  of  God  take  expression  in 
a  fact  so  appalling  as  Christ's  death  ?  What  has 
death  to  do  with  grace  ?  It  is  the  legal  penalty  of  sin. 
The  conjunction  of  sin  and  death  pervades  the  teaching 
of  Scripture,  and  is  a  principle  fixed  in  the  conscience 
of  mankind.  Death,  as  man  knows  it,  is  the  inevitable 
consequence  and  the  universal  witness  of  his  trans- 
gression. He  '^  carries  about  in  his  mortality  the 
testimony  that  God  is  angry  with  the  wicked  every 
day  "  (Augustine).  The  death  of  Jesus  Christ  cannot 
be  taken  out  of  this  category.  He  died  a  sinner's 
death.  He  bore  the  penalty  of  guilt.  The  prophetic 
antecedents  of  Calvary,  the  train  of  circumstances 
connected  with  it.  His  own  explanations  in  chief — are 


ii.  19  21.]  THE  PKINCirLKS  AT  STAKE.  i 


33 


all  in  keeping  with  tliis  purpose.  With  amazement  we 
behold  the  Sinless  ^'  made  sin,"  the  Just  dying  for  the 
unjust.  lie  was  '^  born  of  a  woman,  born  under  law": 
under  law  He  lived — and  died.  Grace  is  no  law-breaker. 
God  must  above  all  things  be  **just  Himself,"  if  He 
is  to  justify  others  (Rom.  iii.  26).  The  death  of  Jesus 
declares  it.  That  sublime  sacrifice  is,  as  one  might 
say,  the  resultant  of  grace  and  law.  Grace  "gives 
Him  up  for  us  all ;  "  it  meets  the  law's  claims  in  Him, 
even  to  the  extreme  penalty,  that  from  us  the  penalty 
may  be  lifted  off.  He  puts  Himself  under  law,  in  order 
"to  buy  out  those  under  law"  (ch.  iv.  4,  5).  In  virtue 
of  the  death  of  Christ,  therefore,  men  are  dealt  with  on 
an  extra-legal  footing,  on  terms  of  grace  ;  not  because 
law  is  ignored  or  has  broken  down  ;  but  because  it  is 
satisfied  beforehand.  God  has  "  set  forth  Christ  Jesus 
a  propitiation  "  ;  and  in  view  of  that  accomplished  fact, 
He  proceeds  "in  the  present  time"  to  "justify  him 
who  is  of  faith  in  Jesus  "  (Rom.  iii.  22 — 26).  Legalism 
is  at  an  end,  for  the  Law  has  spent  itself  on  our 
Redeemer.  For  those  that  are  in  Him  "  there  is  now 
no  condemnation."  This  is  to  anticipate  the  fuller 
teaching  of  ch.  iii. ;  but  the  vicarious  sacrifice  is  already 
implied  when  Paul  says,  "  He  gave  Himself  up  for  me 
— gave  Himself  for  our  sins"  (ch.  i.  4). 

The  resurrection  of  Christ  is,  in  Paul's  thought,  the 
other  side  of  His  death.  They  constitute  one  event, 
the  obverse  and  reverse  of  the  same  reality.  For  Paul, 
as  for  the  first  Apostles,  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  gave 
to  His  death  an  aspect  wholly  different  from  that  it 
previously  wore.  But  the  transformation  wrought  in 
their  minds  during  the  ''  forty  days,"  in  his  case  came 
about  in  a  single  moment,  and  began  from  a  different 
starting-point.     Instead  of   being  the   merited   punish- 


156  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS  > 

ment  of  a  blasphemer  and  false  Messiah,  the  death  of 
Calvary  became  the  glorious  self-sacrifice  of  the  Son 
of  God.  The  dying  and  rising  of  Jesus  were  blended 
in  the  Apostle's  mind  ;  he  always  sees  the  one  in  the 
light  of  the  other.  The  faith  that  saves,  as  he  formu- 
lates it,  is  at  once  a  faith  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins, 
and  that  God  raised  Him  from  the  dead  on  the  third 
day.*  Whichever  of  the  two  one  may  first  apprehend, 
it  brings  the  other  along  with  it.  The  resurrection  is 
not  an  express  topic  of  this  Epistle.  Nevertheless  it 
meets  us  in  its  first  sentence,  where  we  discern  that 
Paul's  knowledge  of  the  gospel  and  his  call  to  pro- 
claim it,  rested  upon  this  fact.  In  the  passage  before 
us  the  resurrection  is  manifestly  assumed.  If  the 
Apostle  is  "crucified  with  Christ," — and  yet  ''Christ 
lives  in  him,"  it  is  not  simply  the  teaching,  or  the 
mission  of  Jesus  that  lives  over  again  in  Paul ;  the  life 
of  the  risen  Saviour  has  itself  entered  into  his  soul. 

III.  This  brings  us  to  the  thought  of  the  union  of  the 
believer  with  Christ  in  death  and  life^  which  is  expressed 
in  terms  of  peculiar  emphasis  and  distinctness  in 
ver.  20.  "  With  Christ  I  have  been  crucified ;  and 
/  live  no  longer ;  it  is  Christ  that  lives  in  me.  My 
earthly  life  is  governed  by  faith  in  Him  who  loved 
me  and  died  for  me."  Christ  and  Paul  are  one.  When 
Christ  died,  Paul's  former  self  died  with  Him.  Now 
it  is  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  heaven  that  lives  within 
Paul's  body  here  on  earth. 

This  union  is  first  of  all  a  communion  with  the  dying 
Saviour.  Paul  does  not  think  of  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary 
as  something  merely  accomplished  for  him,  outside 
himself,  by  a  legal  arrangement  in  which  one  person 

•  I  Cor.  XV.  3,  4,  1 1  ;  Rom.  iv.  24,  25  ;  x.  9 ;  i  Thess.  iv.  14. 


ii.  19-21.]  THE  PRINCIPLES  AT  STAKE.  157 

takes  the  place  of  another  and,  as  it  were,  personates 
him.  Tlic  nexus  between  Christ  and  Paul  is  deeper 
than  this.  Christ  is  the  centre  and  soul  of  the  race, 
holding  towards  it  a  spiritual  primacy  of  which  Adam's 
natural  headship  was  a  type,  mediating  between  men 
and  God  in  all  the  relations  which  mankind  holds  to 
God.*  The  death  of  Jesus  was  more  than  substitu- 
tionary ;  it  was  representative.  He  had  ever}'  right 
to  act  for  us.  Pie  was  the  "  One  "  who  alone  could 
"  die  for  all ;  "  in  Him  '^  all  died  "  (2  Cor.  v.  14,  1 5).  He 
carried  us  with  Him  to  the  cross ;  His  death  was  in 
effect  the  death  of  those  who  sins  He  bore.  There 
was  no  legal  fiction  here ;  no  federal  compact  extem- 
porised for  the  occasion.  "  The  second  Man  from 
heaven,"  if  second  in  order  of  time,  was  first  and 
fundamental  in  the  spiritual  order,  the  organic  Head 
of  mankind,  "  the  root,"  as  well  as  "  the  offspring  "  of 
humanity.!  The  judgement  that  fell  upon  the  race  was 
a  summons  to  Him  who  held  in  His  hands  its  interests 
and  destinies.  Paul's  faith  apprehends  and  endorses 
what  Christ  has  done  on  his  behalf, — "  who  loved  me," 
he  erics,  "and  gave  Himself  up /or  me!^  When  the 
Apostle  says,  "  I  have  been  crucified  with  Christ,"  he 
goes  back  in  thought  to  the  scene  of  Calvary ;  there, 
potentially,  all  that  was  done  of  which  he  now  realises 
in  himself  the  issue.  His  present  salvation  is,  so  to 
speak,  a  rehearsal  of  the  Saviour's  death,  a  "like- 
ness "  (Rom.  vi.  5)  of  the  supreme  act  of  atonement, 
which  took  place  once  for  all  when  Christ  died  for 
our  sins. 

Faith  is  the  link  between  the  past,  objective  sacrifice, 
and  the  present,  subjective  apprehension  of  it,  by  which 

•   Rom.  V.  14  ;  I  Cor.  xv.  22,  45 — 48  ;  I  Tim.  ii.  5. 

t   1  Cor.  XV.  45—49  ;  comp.  Col.  i.  15 — 17  ;  Jolin  i.  4,  9,  15,  16. 


158  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS, 


its  virtue  becomes  our  own.  Without  such  faith,  Christ 
would  have  "  died  in  vain."  His  death  must  then  have 
been  a  great  sacrifice  thrown  away.  Wilful  unbelief 
repudiates  what  the  Redeemer  has  done,  provisionally, 
on  our  behalf.  This  repudiation,  as  individuals,  we  are 
perfectly  free  to  make.  "  The  objective  reconciliation 
effected  in  Christ's  death  can  after  all  benefit  actually, 
in  their  own  personal  consciousness,  only  those  who 
know  and  acknowledge  it,  and  feel  themselves  in  their 
solidarity  with  Christ  to  be  §0  much  one  with  Him 
as  to  be  able  to  appropriate  inwardly  His  death  and 
celestial  life,  and  to  live  over  r.gain  His  life  and  death; 
those  only,  in  a  word,  who  truly  believe  in  Christ.  Thus 
the  idea  of  substitution  in  Paul  receives  its  complement 
and  realisation  in  the  mysticism  of  his  conception  of 
faith.  While  Christ  objectively  represents  the  whole 
race,  that  relation  becomes  a  subjective  reality  only 
in  the  case  of  those  wdio  connect  themselves  with  Him 
in  faith  in  such  a  way  as  to  fuse  together  with  Him 
into  one  spirit  and  one  body,  as  to  find  in  Him  their 
Head,  their  soul,  their  life  and  self,  and  He  in  them 
His  body,  His  members  and  His  temple.  Thereby  the 
idea  of  *  one  for  all '  receives  the  stricter  meaning  of 
'  all  in  and  with  one.'  "* 

Partaking  the  death  of  Christ,  Paul  has  come  to 
share  in  His  risen  life.  On  the  cross  he  owned  his" 
Saviour — owned  His  wounds.  His  shame,  His  agony 
of  death,  and  felt  himself  therein  shamed,  wounded, 
slain  to  death.  Thus  joined  to  his  Redeemer,  as  by 
the  nails  that  fastened  Him  to  the  tree,   Paul  is  carried 

*  Pfleiderer,  Hibhert  T.echires,  pp.  65,6.  Dr.  Pfleiderer's  delicate  and 
sympatlietic  interpretation  of  Paul  s  teaching  (in  these  Lectures,  and 
still  more  in  his  Taultnisju)  has  made  all  students  of  the  Apostle  his 
debtors,    however  much  they  may  quarrel  with  his  historical  criticism. 


ii.  19-21.]  THE  PRINCIPLES  AT  STAKE.  159 


with  Tlim  down  into  the  grave — into  the  grave,  and 
out  again  !  Christ  is  risen  from  the  dead  :  so  therefore 
is  Paul.  lie  "died  to  sin  once,"  and  now  "  liveth  to 
God;  death  lords  it  over  Ilim  no  more:"  this  Paul 
reckons  equally  true  for  himself  (Rom.  vi.  3 — 1 1).  The 
Ego^  the  "  old  man  "  that  Paul  once  was,  lies  buried  in 
the  grave  of  Jesus. 

Jesus  Christ  alone,  "the  Lord  of  the  Spirit"  has 
risen  from  tliat  sepulchre, — has  risen  in  the  spirit  of 
Paul.  "  If  any  one  should  come  to  Paul's  doors  and 
ask,  Who  lives  here  ?  he  would  answer.  Not  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  but  Jesus  Christ  lives  in  this  body  of  mine." 
In  this  appropriation  of  the  death  and  rising  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  this  interpenetration  of  the  spirit  of  Paul 
and  that  of  Christ,  there  are  three  stages  corresponding 
to  the  Friday,  Saturday,  and  Sunday  of  Eastertide. 
"  Christ  died  for  our  sins  ;  He  was  buried  ;  He  rose 
again  the  third  day : "  so,  by  consequence,  "  I  am 
crucified  with  Christ;  no  longer  do  I  live;  Christ 
liveth  in  me." 

This  mystic  union  of  the  soul  and  its  Saviour  bears 
fruit  in  the  activities  of  outward  life.  Faith  is  no  mere 
abstract  and  contemplative  affection ;  but  a  working 
energy,  dominating  and  directing  all  our  human  facul- 
ties. It  makes  even  the  flesh  its  instrument,  which 
defied  the  law  of  God,  and  betrayed  the  man  to  the 
bondage  of  sin  and  death.  There  is  a  note  of  triumph 
in  the  words, — "  the  life  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  in 
faith!"  The  impossible  has  been  accomplished.  ''The 
body  of  death  "  is  possessed  by  the  Spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus  (Rom.  vi.  12;  vii.  23 — viii.  i).  The 
flesh — the  despair  of  the  law — lias  become  the  sancti- 
fied vessel  of  grace. 

Paul's  entire  theology  of    Redemption  i?  Qonta^iuod 


V 


i6o  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

in  this  mystery  of  union  with  Christ.  The  office  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  whose  communion  holds  together  the 
glorified  Lord  and  His  members  upon  earth,  is  implied 
in  the  teaching  of  ver.  20.  This  is  manifest,  when  in 
ch.  iii.  2 — 5  we  find  the  believer's  union  with  Christ 
described  as  "  receiving  the  Spirit,  beginning  in  the 
Spirit ;  "  and  when  a  little  later  "  the  promise  of  the 
Spirit "  embraces  the  essential  blessings  of  the  new 
life.*  The  doctrine  of  the  Church  is  also  here.  For 
those  in  whom  Christ  dwells  have  therein  a  common 
life,  which  knows  no  "  Jew  and  Greek  ;  all  are  one 
man "  in  Him.t  Justification  and  sanctification  alike 
are  here ;  the  former  being  the  realisation  of  our  share 
in  Christ's  propitiation  for  sin,  the  latter  our  participa- 
tion in  His  risen  life,  spent  ^'  to  God."  Finally,  the 
resurrection  to  eternal  life  and  the  heavenly  glory  of 
the  saints  spring  from  their  present  fellowship  with  the 
Redeemer.  "  The  Spirit  that  raised  Jesus  from  the 
dead,  dwelling  in  us,  shall  raise  our  mortal  body  "  to 
share  with  the  perfected  spirit  His  celestial  life.  The 
resurrection  of  Christ  is  the  earnest  of  that  which  all 
His  members  will  attain, — nay,  the  material  creation 
is  to  participate  in  the  glory  of  the  sons  of  God,  made 
like  to  Him,  the  "firstborn  of  many  brethren"  (Rom, 
viii.  II,  i6 — 23,  29,  30;  Phil.  iii.  20,  21). 

In  all  these  vital  truths  Paul's  gospel  was  traversed  by 
the  Legalism  countenanced  by  Peter  at  Antioch.  The 
Jiidaistic  doctrine  struck  directly,  if  not  avowedly,  at  the 
cross,  whose  reproach  its  promoters  sought  to  escape. 
This  charge  is  the  climax  of  the  Apostle's  contention 
against  Peter,  and  the  starting-point  of  his  expostula- 

*  Ch.  iii.  14  ;  iv.  6,  7  ;  V.  5  ;  I  Cor,  vi.  17,  19  ;  Rom.  viii.  9 — 16. 
t  Ch.  iii.  28  ;  Ccl.  iii.  ii  ;  Rom.  xv.  5 — 7. 


ii.  19-21.]  THE  PRINCIPLES  AT  STAKE,  161 

tion  with  the  Galatians  in  the  following  chapter.  "  If 
righteousness  could  be  obtained  by  way  of  law,  then 
Christ  died  for  nought ! "  What  could  one  say  worse 
of  any  doctrine  or  policy,  than  that  it  led  to  this  ?  And 
if  works  of  law  actually  justify  men,  and  circumcision 
is  allowed  to  make  a  difference  between  Jew  and  Greek 
before  God,  the  principle  of  legalism  is  admitted,  and  the 
intolerable  consequence  ensues  which  Paul  denounces. 
What  did  Christ  die  for,  if  men  are  able  to  redeem 
themselves  after  this  fashion  ?  How  can  any  one  dare 
to  build  up  in  face  of  the  cross  his  paltry  edifice  of 
self-wrought  goodness,  and  say  by  doing  so  that  the 
expiation  of  Calvary  was  superfluous  and  that  Jesus 
Christ  might  have  spared  Himself  all  that  trouble  I 

And  so,  on  the  one  hand.  Legalism  inipugns 
the  grace  of  God.  It  puts  human  relations  to  God 
on  the  footing  of  a  debtor  and  creditor  account ; 
it  claims  for  man  a  ground  for  boasting  in  himself 
(Rom.  iv.  I — 4),  and  takes  from  God  the  glory  of  His 
grace.  In  its  devotion  to  statute  and  ordinance,  it 
misses  the  soul  of  obedience — the  love  of  God,  only  to 
be  awakened  by  the  knowledge  of  His  love  to  us  (ch.  v. 
14;  I  John  iv.  7 — 11).  It  sacrifices  the  Father  in  God 
to  the  King.  It  forgets  that  trust  is  the  first  duty  of 
a  rational  creature  toward  his  Maker,  that  the  law  of 
faith  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  law  for  man. 

On  the  other  hand,  and  by  the  same  necessity, 
Legalism  is  fatal  to  the  spiritual  life  in  man.  Whilst  it 
clouds  the  Divine  character,  it  dwarfs  and  petrifies  the 
human.  What  becomes  of  the  sublime  mystery  of  the 
life  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  if  its  existence  is  made 
contingent  on  circumcision  and  ritual  performance  ? 
To  men  who  put  "meat  and  drink"  on  a  level  with 
"righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,'* 

II 


i62  THE  EPISTLE   TO    THE   GALATIANS. 


or  in  their  intercourse  with  fellow-Christians  set  points 
of  ceremony  above  justice,  mercy,  and  faith,  the  very  idea 
of  a  spiritual  kingdom  of  God  is  wanting.  The  religion 
of  Jesus  and  of  Paul  regenerates  the  heart,  and  from 
that  centre  regulates  and  hallows  the  whole  ongoing  of 
life.  Legalism  guards  the  mouth,  the  hands,  the  senses, 
and  imagines  that  through  these  it  can  drill  the  man 
into  the  Divine  order.  The  latter  theory  makes  religion 
a  mechanical  system ;  the  former  conceives  it  as  an 
inward,  organic  life. 


THE  DOCTRINAL   POLEMIC. 
Chap.  iii.   i — v.  12. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THE   GALATIAN  FOLLY. 

"O  foolish  Galatians,  who  did  bewitch  you,  before  whose  eyes  Jesus 
Christ  was  openly  set  forth  crucified  ?  This  only  would  I  learn  from 
you,  Received  ye  the  Spirit  by  the  works  of  the  law,  or  by  the  hearing 
of  faith  ?  Are  ye  so  foolish  ?  having  begun  in  the  Spirit,  are  ye  now 
perfected  in  the  flesh?  Did  ye  suffer  so  many  things  in  vain?  if  it  be 
indeed  in  vain.  He  therefore  that  supplieth  to  you  the  Spirit,  and 
worketh  miracles  among  you.  doeth  he  it  by  the  works  of  the  law,  or 
by  the  hearing  of  faith?  " — Gal.  iii.  i — 5. 


A 


T  the  beginning  of  ch.  iii.  falls  the  most  marked 
division  of  this  Epistle.  So  far,  since  the  ex- 
ordium, its  course  has  been  strictly  narrative.  The 
Apostle  has  been  "giving"  his  readers  "to  know" 
many  things  concerning  himself  and  his  relations  to 
the  Judean  Church  of  which  they  had  been  ignorant  or 
misinformed.  Now  this  preliminary  task  is  over.  From 
explanation  and  defence  he  passes  suddenly  to  the 
attack.  He  turns  sharply  round  upon  the  Galatians, 
and  begins  to  ply  them  with  expostulation  and  argu- 
ment. It  is  for  their  sake  that  Paul  has  been  telling 
this  story  of  his  past  career.  In  the  light  of  the 
narration  just  concluded,  they  will  be  able  to  see  their 
folly  and  to  understand  how  much  they  have  been 
deceived. 

Here  also  the  indignation   so  powerfully  expressed 
in  the  Introduction,   breaks  forth  again,  directed   this 


i66  'IHE  EPISTLE    TO    THE   GALATIANS. 

time,  however,  against  the  Galatians  themselves  and 
breathing  grief  more  than  anger.  And  just  as  after 
that  former  outburst  the  letter  settled  down  into  the 
sober  flow  of  narrative,  so  from  these  words  of  reproach 
Paul  passes  on  to  the  measured  course  of  argument 
which  he  pursues  through  the  next  two  chapters.  In 
ch.  iv.  8 — 20,  and  again  in  ch.  v.  I — 12,  doctrine 
gives  way  to  appeal  and  warning.  But  these  para- 
graphs still  belong  to  the  polemical  division  of  the 
Epistle,  extending  from  this  point  to  the  middle  of 
ch.  v.  This  section  forms  the  central  and  principal 
part  of  the  letter,  and  is  complete  in  itself.  Its  last 
words,  in  ch.  v.  6 — 12,  will  bring  us  round  to  the 
position  from  which  we  are  now  setting  out. 

This  chapter  stands,  nevertheless,  in  close  connection 
of  thought  with  the  foregoing.  The  Apostle's  doctrine 
is  grounded  in  historical  fact  and  personal  experience. 
The  theological  argument  has  behind  it  the  weight 
of  his  proved  Apostleship.  The  Judaistic  dispute  at 
Antioch,  in  particular,  bears  immediately  on  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  third  chapter.  Peter's  vacillation  had  its 
counterpart  in  the  defection  of  the  Galatians.  The 
reproof  and  refutation  which  the  elder  Apostle  brought 
upon  himself,  Paul's  readers  must  have  felt,  touched 
them  very  nearly.  In  the  crafty  intriguers  who  made 
mischief  at  Antioch,  they  could  see  the  image  of  the 
Judaists  who  had  come  into  their  midst.  Above  all, 
it  was  the  cross  which  Cephas  had  dishonoured,  whose 
efficacy  he  had  virtually  denied.  His  act  of  dissimula- 
tion, pushed  to  its  issue,  nullified  the  death  of  Christ. 
This  is  the  gravamen  of  Paul's  impeachment.  And 
it  is  the  foundation  of  all  his  complaints  against  the 
Galatians.  Round  this  centre  the  conflict  is  waged. 
By  its  tendency  to  enhance  or  diminish  the  glory  of 


iii.  1-5]  THE   GALATIAN  FOLLY.  \fi^ 

the  Saviour's  cross,  Paul  judges  of  the  truth  of  every 
teaching,  the  worth  of  every  poUcy.  Angel  or  Apostle, 
it  matters  not — whoever  disparages  the  cross  of  Jesus 
Christ  finds  in  Paul  an  unflinching  enemy.  The 
thought  of  Christ  "dying  in  vain"  rouses  in  him  the 
strong  emotion  under  which  he  indites  the  first  verses 
of  this  chapter.  What  greater  folly,  what  stranger 
bewitchment  can  there  be,  than  for  one  who  has  seen 
"  Jesus  Christ  crucified  "  to  turn  away  to  some  other 
spectacle,  to  seek  elsewhere  a  more  potent  and  diviner 
charm  !     "  O  senseless  Galatians  !  " 

I.  Here  then  was  the  beginning  of  their  folly.  The 
Galatians  forgot  their  Saviour's  cross. 

This  was  the  first  step  in  their  backsliding.  Had 
their  eyes  continued  to  be  fixed  on  Calvary,  the  Legalists 
would  have  argued  and  cajoled  in  vain.  Let  the  cross 
of  Christ  once  lose  its  spell  for  us,  let  its  influence  fail 
to  hold  and  rule  the  soul,  and  we  are  at  the  mercy  of 
every  wind  of  doctrine.  We  are  like  sailors  in  a  dark 
night  on  a  perilous  coast,  who  have  lost  sight  of  the 
lighthouse  beacon.  Our  Christianity  will  go  to  pieces. 
If  Christ  crucified  should  cease  to  be  its  sovereign 
attraction,  from  that  moment  the  Church  is  doomed. 

This  forgetfulness  of  the  cross  on  the  part  of  the 
Galatians  is  the  more  astonishing  to  Paul,  because  at 
first  they  had  so  vividly  realised  its  power,  and  the 
scene  of  Calvary,  as  Paul  depicted  it,*  had  taken  hold 
of  their  nature  with  extraordinary  force.  He  was  con- 
scious at  the  time — so  his  words  seem   to   intimate  — 

*  The  verb  irpoeypdcpr)  {openly  set  forth)  probably  means  painted  up 
rather  than  placarded.  This  more  vivid  meaning  belongs  to  ypa<pu}, 
and  there  is  no  suHicient  reason  why  it  should  not  attach  to  irpo-ypcKpu. 
It  is  entirely  in  place  here.  ''Jesus  Christ  crucified "'  is  not  an  announce- 
ment to  be  made,  but  an  object  to  be  delineated. 


i68  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

that  it  was  given  him,  amongst  this  susceptible  people, 
to  draw  the  picture  with  unwonted  effect.  The  gaze 
of  his  hearers  was  rivetted  upon  the  sight.  It  was  as 
if  the  Lord  Jesus  hung  there  before  their  eyes.  They 
beheld  the  Divine  sufferer.  They  heard  His  cries  of 
distress  and  of  triumph.  They  felt  the  load  which 
crushed  Him.  Nor  was  it  their  sympathies  alone  and 
their  reverence,  to  which  the  spectacle  appealed.  It 
stirred  their  conscience  to  its  depths.  It  awakened 
feelings  of  inward  humiliation  and  contrition,  of  horror 
at  the  curse  of  sin,  of  anguish  under  the  bitterness  and 
blackness  of  its  death.  ^'It  was  j^ow,"  Paul  would  say — 
"  you  and  I,  for  whom  He  died.  Our  sins  laid  on  Him 
that  ignominy,  those  agonies  of  body  and  of  spirit. 
He  died  the  Just  for  the  unjust,  that  He  might  bring 
us  to  God."  They  looked,  they  listened,  till  their 
hearts  were  broken,  till  all  their  sins  cried  out  against 
them ;  and  in  a  passion  of  repentance  they  cast  them- 
selves before  the  Crucified,  and  took  Him  for  their 
Christ  and  King.  From  the  foot  of  the  cross  they 
rose  new  men,  with  heaven's  light  upon  their  brow, 
with  the  cry  Abba,  Father  rising  from  their  lips,  with 
the  Spirit  of  God  and  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  consciousness 
of  a  Divine  sonship,  filling  their  breast. 

Has  all  this  passed  away  ?  Have  the  Galatians  for- 
gotten the  shame,  the  glory  of  that  hour — the  tears 
of  penitence,  the  cries  of  joy  and  gratitude  which  the 
vision  of  the  cross  drew  from  their  souls,  the  new 
creation  it  had  wrought  within  them,  the  ardour  of  spirit 
and  high  resolve  with  which  they  pledged  themselves 
to  Christ's  service  ?  Was  the  influence  of  that  trans- 
forming experience  to  prove  no  more  enduring  than 
the  morning  cloud  and  early  dew  ?  Foolish  Galatians  I 
Had  they  not  the  wit  to  see  that  the  teaching  of  the 


iii.  1-5.]  THE   GALATIAN  FOLLY,  169 

Legalists  ran  counter  to  all  they  had  then  experienced, 
that  it  "  made  the  death  of  Christ  of  none  effect,"  which 
had  so  mighty  and  saving  an  effect  upon  themselves  ? 
Were  they  "so  senseless,"  so  bereft  of  reason  and 
recollection  ?  The  Apostle  is  amazed.  He  cannot 
understand  how  impressions  so  powerful  should  prove 
so  transient,  and  that  truths  thus  clearly  perceived  and 
realised  should  come  to  be  forgotten.  Some  fatal  spell 
has  been  cast  over  them.  They  are  "  bewitcl.ed "  to 
act  as  they  are  doing.  A  deadly  fascination,  like  that 
of  the  *'  evil  eye,"  has  paralyzed  their  minds. 

The  ancient  belief  alluded  to  in  the  word  the  Apostle 
uses  here,*  is  not  altogether  a  superstition.  The 
malignity  that  darts  out  in  the  glance  of  the  '^  evil  eye  " 
is  a  presage  of  mischief.  Not  without  reason  does  it 
cause  a  shudder.  It  is  the  sign  of  a  demonic  jealousy 
and  hate.  "  Satan  has  entered  into  "  the  soul  which 
emits  it,  as  once  into  Judas.  Behind  the  spite  of  the 
Jewish  false  brethren  Paul  recognised  a  preternatural 
malice  and  cunning,  like  that  with  which  "  the  Serpent 
beguiled  Eve."  t  To  this  darker  source  of  the  fascina- 
tion his  question,  "  Who  hath  bewitched  you  ? " 
appears  to  point. 

II.  Losing  sight  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  the  Galatians 
were  furthermore  rejecting  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God. 

This  heavy  reproach  the   Apostles  urges  upon  his 

*  On  ^affKaivu)  see  the  note  in  Lightfoot's  Commentary  in  loc. ;  also 
Grimm's  N.  T.  Lexicon.  *'  The  Scripture  calleth  envy  an  'evil  eye  ; ' . . . 
so  there  still  seemeth  to  be  acknowledged  in  the  act  of  envy  an  ejacula- 
tion or  irradiation  of  the  eye.  Envy  hath  in  it  something  of  witchcraft. 
...  It  is  the  proper  attribute  of  the  Devil,  who  is  called  'The  envious 
man,  that  soweth  tares  among  the  wheat  by  night.' " — (Lord  Bacon  : 
Essay  ix.) 

t  Comp.  2  Cor.  xi.  I — 4.  a  passage  closely  parallel  to  this  context, 
containing  what  is  expressed  here  and  in  Gal.  i.  6,  7  ;  iv,  1 1,  17,  iS. 


I70  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS, 

readers  through  the  rest  of  the  paragraph,  pausing  only 
for  a  moment  in  ver.  4  to  recall  their  earlier  sufferings 
for  Christ's  sake  in  further  witness  against  them. 
"  I  have  but  one  question  to  put  to  you/'  he  says — 
"  You  received  the  Spirit :  how  did  that  come  about  ? 
Was  it  through  what  you  did  according  to  law?  or 
what  you  heard  in  faith  ?  You  know  well  that  this 
great  blessing  was  given  to  your  faith.  Can  you 
expect  to  retain  this  gift  of  God  on  other  terms  than 
those  on  which  you  received  it  ?  Have  you  begun 
with  the  Spirit  to  be  brought  to  perfection  by  the 
flesh  ?  (ver.  3).  .  .  .  Nay,  God  still  bestows  on  you  His 
Spirit,  with  gifts  of  miraculous  energy ;  and  I  ask 
again,  whether  these  displays  attend  on  the  practice  of 
.aw-works,  or  upon  faith's  hearing  ?  "    (ver.  5). 

The  Apostle  wished  the  Galatians  to  test  the  com- 
peting doctrines  by  their  effects.  The  Spirit  of  God 
had  put  His  seal  on  the  Apostle's  teaching,  and  on 
the  faith  of  his  hearers.  Did  any  such  manifestation 
accompany  the  preaching  of  the  LegaHst  ?  That  is  all 
he  wants  to  know.  His  cause  must  stand  or  fall  by 
"  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit."  By  "  signs  and 
wonders,"  and  diverse  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  God 
was  wont  to  "  bear  witness  with "  the  ministers  and 
witnesses  of  Jesus  Christ  (Heb.  ii.  3,  4  ;  I  Cor.  xii. 
4 — 11)  :  was  this  testimony  on  the  side  of  Paul,  or  the 
Circumcisionists  ?  Did  it  sustain  the  gospel  of  the  grace 
of  God,  or  the  "  other  gospel  "  of  Legalism  ? 

"  He,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  shall  testify  of  Me,"  Christ 
had  said;  and  so  John,  at  the  end  of  the  Apostolic  age : 
*'  It  is  the  Spirit  that  beareth  witness,  because  the 
Spirit  is  truth."  When  the  Galatians  accepted  the 
message  of  the  cross  proclaimed  by  Paul's  lips,  "  the 
Holy  Spirit  fell"  on  them,  as  on  the  Jewish  Church  at 


iii.  i-S-]  THE   GALATIAN  FOLLV.  171 

the  Pentecost,  and  the  Gentile  behevers  in  the  house 
of  Cornehus  (Acts  x.  44)  ;  "  the  love  of  God  was  poured 
out  in  their  hearts  through  the  Holy  Ghost  that  was 
given  them  "  (Rom  v.  5).  As  a  mighty,  rushing  wind 
this  supernatural  influence  swept  through  their  souls. 
Like  fire  from  heaven  it  kindled  in  their  spirit,  con- 
suming their  lusts  and  vanities,  and  fusing  their  nature 
into  a  new,  holy  passion  of  love  to  Christ  and  to  God 
the  Father.  It  broke  from  their  lips  in  ecstatic  cries, 
unknown  to  human  speech ;  or  moved  them  to  unutter- 
able groans  and  pangs  of  intercession  (Rom.  viii.  26). 

There  were  men  in  the  Galatian  Churches  on  whom 
the  baptism  of  the  Spirit  conferred  besides  miraculous 
cliarismatay  superhuman  powers  of  insight  and  of  heal- 
ing. These  gifts  God  continued  to  "minister  amongst" 
them  {God  is  unquestionably  the  agent  in  ver.  5).  Paul 
asks  them  to  observe  on  what  conditions,  and  to  whom, 
th(ase  extraordinary  gifts  are  distributed.  For  the  "  re- 
ceiving of  the  Spirit"  was  an  infallible  sign  of  true 
Christian  faith.  This  was  the  very  proof  which  in  the 
first  instance  had  convinced  Peter  and  the  Judean 
Church  that  it  was  God's  will  to  save  the  Gentiles, 
independently  of  the  Mosaic  law  (Acts  xi.  15 — 18). 

Receiving  the  Spirit,  the  Galatian  believers  knew 
that  they  were  the  sons  of  God.  "  God  sent  forth  the 
Spirit  of  His  Son  into  their  hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father'^ 
(ch.  iv.  6,  7).  When  Paul  speaks  of "  receiving  the 
Spirit,"  it  is  this  that  he  thinks  of  most  of  all.  The 
miraculous  phenomena  attending  His  visitations  were 
facts  of  vast  importance  ;  and  their  occurrence  is  one 
of  the  historical  certainties  of  the  Apos'olic  age.  They 
were  "signs,"  conspicuous,  impressiv^e,  indispensable 
at  the  time — monuments  set  up  for  all  time.  But  they 
were  in  their  nature  variable  and  temporary.     There 


172  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

are  powers  greater  and  more  enduring  than  these. 
The  things  that  "abide"  are  "faith,  hope,  love;"  love 
chiefest  of  the  three.  Hence  when  the  Apostle  in  a 
later  chapter  enumerates  the  qualities  that  go  to  make 
up  "the  fruit  of  the  Spirit,"  he  says  nothing  of  tongues 
or  prophecies^  or  gifts  of  healing;  he  begins  with  love. 
Wonder-working  powers  had  their  times  and  seasons, 
their  peculiar  organs  ;  but  every  believer  in  Christ — 
whether  Jew  or  Greek,  primitive  or  mediaeval  or  modern 
Christian,  the  heir  of  sixty  generations  of  faith  or  the 
latest  convert  from  heathenism — ^joins  in  the  testimony, 
"  The  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our  heart  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  given  unto  us."  This  mark  of  God's 
indwelling  Spirit  the  Galatians  had  possessed.  They 
were  "  sons  of  God  through  faith  in  Christ  Jesus " 
(ch.  iii.  26).  And  with  the  filial  title  they  had  re- 
ceived the  filial  nature.  They  were  "  taught  of  God  to 
love  one  another."  Being  sons  of  God  in  Christ,  they 
were  also  "heirs"  (ch.  iv.  7;  Rom  viii.  17).  They 
possessed  the  earnest  of  the  heavenly  inheritance 
(Eph.  i.  14),  the  pledge  of  their  bodily  redemption 
(Rom.  viii.  10 — 23),  and  of  eternal  life  in  the  fellowship 
of  Christ.  In  their  initial  experience  of  "the  salvation 
which  is  in  Jesus  Christ"  they  had  the  foretaste  of  its 
"  eternal  glory,"  of  the  "grace  "  belonging  to  "  them  that 
love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  which  is  "  in  incorruption."  * 
No  legal  condition  was  laid  down  at  this  beginning 
of  their  Christian  life ;  no  "  work  "  of  any  kind  inter- 
posed between  the  belief  of  the  heart  and  the  conscious 
reception  of  the  new  life  in  Christ.  Even  their  baptism, 
significant  and  memorable  as  it  was,  had  not  been 
required  as  in  itself  a  precondition  of  salvation.    Some- 

*  2  Tim.  ii.  10 ;  Eph.  vi.  24  {d<pdapcia  is  incorruption  everywhere 
else  in  Paul :  why  not  here  ?) 


iii.  1-5.]  THE   GALATIAN  FOLLY,  173 


times  after  baptism,  but  often — as  in  the  case  of 
Cornelius'  household — before  the  rite  was  admin- 
istered, "the  Holy  Ghost  fell"  on  believing  souls 
(Acts  X.  44 — 48;  xi.  15,  16).  They  "confessed  with 
their  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus ;  "  they  *'  believed  in  their 
hearts  that  God  had  raised  Him  from  the  dead," — and 
they  w^ere  saved.  Baptism  is,  as  Paul's  teaching  else- 
where shows,*  the  expression,  not  the  medium — the 
s3^mbol,  and  not  the  cause,  of  the  new  birth  which  it 
might  precede  or  follow.  The  Catholic  doctrine  of 
the  opus  operaturn  in  the  sacraments  is  radically  anti- 
Pauline  ;  it  is  Judaism  over  again.  The  process  by 
which  the  Galatians  became  Christians  was  essentially 
spiritual.     They  had  begun  in  the  Spirit. 

And  so  they  must  continue.  To  begin  in  the  Spirit, 
and  then  look  for  perfection  to  the  flesh,  to  suppose 
that  the  work  of  faith  and  love  was  to  be  consummated 
by  Pharisaic  ordinances,  that  Moses  could  lead  them 
higher  than  Christ,  and  circumcision  effect  for  them 
what  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  failed  to  do — this 
was  the  height  of  unreason.  "  Are  you  so  senseless  ?  " 
the  Apostle  asks. 

He  dwells  on  this  absurdity,  pressing  home  his 
expostulation  with  an  emphasis  that  shows  he  is 
touching  the  centre  of  the  controversy  between  himself 
and  the  Judaizers.  They  admitted,  as  we  have  shown 
in  Chapter  IX.,  that  Gentiles  might  enter  the  kingdom 
of  God  through  faith  and  by  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit. 
This  was  settled  at  the  Council  of  Jerusalem.  Without 
a  formal  acceptance  of  this  evangelical  principle,  we  do 
not  see  how  the  Legalists  could  again  have  found  en- 
trance into  Gentile  Christian  Churches,  much  less  have 


*  Ch.  iii.  26,  27;  Rom.  vi.  2 — 4;  Col.  ii.  ii  — 13;    Tit.  iii.  5. 


174  THE  EPISTLE   TO    THE   G4LATIANS. 

carrifd  Peter  and  Barnabas  and  the  liberal  Jews  of 
Antoch  with  them,  as  they  did.  They  no  longer  at- 
tempted to  deny  salvation  to  the  imcircumcised  ;  but 
they  claimed  for  the  circumcised  a  more  complete 
salvation,  and  a  higher  status  in  the  Church.  "Yes, 
Paul  has  laid  the  foundation,"  they  would  say ;  *'  now 
we  have  come  to  perfect  his  work,  to  give  you  the  more 
advanced  instruction,  derived  from  the  fountain-head 
of  Christian  knowledge,  from  the  first  Apostles  in 
Jeni~alem.  If  you  would  be  perfect^  keep  the  command- 
ments;  be  circumcised,  like  Christ  and  His  disciples, 
and  observe  the  law  of  Moses.  If  you  be  circumcised, 
Christ  will  profit  you  much  more  than  hitherto  ;  and 
you  will  inherit  all  the  blessings  promised  in  Him  to 
the  children  of  Abraham." 

Such  was  the  style  of  "  persuasion  "  employed  by 
the  Judaizers.  It  was  well  calculated  to  deceive  Jewish 
believers,  even  these  best  affected  to  their  Gentile 
brethren.  It  appeared  to  maintain  the  prescriptive 
rights  of  Judaism  and  to  satisfy  legitimate  national 
pride,  without  excluding  the  Gentiles  from  the  fold  of 
Christ.  Nor  is  it  difficult  to  understand  the  spell  which 
the  circumcisionist  doctrine  exerted  over  susceptible 
Gentile  minds,  after  some  years  of  Christian  training, 
of  familiarity  with  the  Old  Testament  and  the  early 
history  of  Israel.  Who  is  there  that  does  not  feel  the 
charm  of  ancient  memories  and  illustrious  names  ? 
Many  a  noble  mind  is  at  this  present  time  "  bewitched," 
many  a  gifted  and  pious  spirit  is  '^carried  away"  by 
influences  precisely  similar.  Apostolical  succession,  pa~ 
tristic  usage,  catholic  tradition,  the  authority  of  the  Church 
— what  words  of  power  are  these  !  How  wilful  and 
arbitrary  it  appears  to  rely  upon  any  present  expe- 
rience of  the  grace  of  God,  upon   one's  own   reading 


iii.  i-S-l  THE    GALAT/A.V  FOLLY.  175 

of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  in  contradiction  to  claims  ad- 
vanced under  the  patronage  of  so  many  revered  and 
time-honoured  names.  The  man,  or  the  community, 
must  be  deeply  conscious  of  having  "  received  the 
Spirit,"  that  can  feel  the  force  of  attractions  of  this 
nature,  and  yet  withstand  them.  It  requires  a  clear 
view  of  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  an  absolute  faith  in 
the  supremacy  of  spiritual  principles,  to  enable  one  to 
resist  the  fascinations  of  ceremonialism  and  tradition. 
They  offer  us  a  more  ''  ornate  worship,"  a  more  "  re- 
fined" type  of  piety,  '^consecrated  by  antiquity;"  they 
invite  us  to  enter  a  selecter  circle,  and  to  place  ourselves 
on  a  higher  level  than  that  of  the  vulgar  religionism  of 
faith  and  feeling.  It  is  the  Galatian  "  persuasion  "  over 
again.  Ceremony,  antiquity,  ecclesiastical  authority  are 
after  all  poor  substitutes  for  faith  and  love.  If  they 
come  between  us  and  the  living  Christ,  if  they  limit  and 
dishonour  the  work  of  His  Spirit,  we  have  a  right  to 
say,  and  we  will  say  with  the  Apostle  Paul,  Away  with 
them  ! 

The  men  of  tradition  are  well  content  that  we  should 
"begin  in  the  Spirit,"  provided  they  may  have  the 
finishing  of  our  faith.  To  prey  upon  the  Pauline 
Churches  is  their  ancient  and  natural  habit.  An  evan- 
gelical beginning  is  too  often  followed  by  a  ritualistic 
ending.  And  Paul  is  ever  begetting  spiritual  children, 
to  see  himself  robbed  of  them  by  these  bewitching 
Judaizers.  "  O  foolish  Galatians,"  he  seems  still  to  be 
saying,  What  is  it  that  charms  you  so  much  in  all  this 
ritual  and  externalism  ?  Does  it  bring  you  nearer  to 
the  cross  of  Christ  ?  Does  it  give  you  more  of  His 
Spirit  ?  Is  it  a  spiritual  satisfaction  that  you  find  in 
these  works  of  Church  law,  these  priestly  ordinances 
and  performances  ?     How  can  the  sons  of  God  return 


176  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 


to  such  childish  rudiments  ?  Why  should  a  religion 
which  began  so  spiritually  seek  its  perfection  by  means 
so  formal  and  mechanical  ? 

The  conflict  which  this  Epistle  signalised  is  one 
that  has  never  ceased.  Its  elements  belong  to  human 
nature.  It  is  the  contest  between  the  religion  of  the 
Spirit  and  that  of  the  letter,  between  the  spontaneity 
of  personal  faith  and  the  rights  of  usage  and  pre- 
scription. The  history  of  the  Church  is  largely  the 
record  of  this  incessant  struggle.  In  every  Christian 
community,  in  every  earnest  and  devout  spirit,  it  is 
repeated  in  some  new  phase.  When  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church  in  the  second  and  third  centuries  began  to  write 
about  ^'  the  new  law "  and  to  identify  the  Christian 
ministry  with  the  Aaronic  priesthood,  it  was  evident 
that  Legalism  was  regaining  its  ascendancy.  Already 
the  foundations  were  laid  of  the  Catholic  Church- 
system,  which  culminated  in  the  Papacy  of  Rome. 
What  Paul's  opponents  sought  to  do  by  means  of 
circumcision  and  Jewish  prerogatives,  that  the  Catholic 
legalists  have  done,  on  a  larger  scale,  through  the 
claims  of  the  priesthood  and  the  sacramental  offices. 
The  spiritual  functions  of  the  private  Christian,  one 
after  another,  were  usurped  or  carelessly  abandoned. 
Step  by  step  the  hierarchy  interposed  itself  between 
Christ  and  His  people's  souls,  till  its  mediation  became 
the  sole  channel  and  organ  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  influ- 
ence. So  it  has  come  to  pass,  by  a  strange  irony  of 
history,  that  under  the  forms  of  Pauline  doctrine  and 
in  the  name  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  joined  with 
that  of  Peter,  catholic  Christendom,  delivered  by  him 
from  the  Jewish  yoke,  has  been  entangled  in  a  bond- 
age in  some  respects  even  heavier  and  more  repres- 
sive.    If  tradition  and  prescription  are  to  legulate  our 


iii.  i-S]  THE   GALA TIAN  FOLLY.  I77 

Christian  belief,  they  lead  us  infallibly  to  Rome,  as 
they  would  have  lead  the  Galatians  to  perishing  Jeru- 
salem. 

III.  Paul  said  he  had  but  one  question  to  ask  his 
readers,  that  which  we  have  already  discussed.  And 
yet  he  does  put  to  them,  by  way  of  parenthesis, 
another  (ver.  4),  suggested  by  what  he  has  already  called 
to  mind,  touching  the  beginning  of  their  Christian 
course  :  "  Have  ye  suffered  so  many  things  in  vain  ?  '* 
Their  folly  was  the  greater  in  that  it  threatened  to  deprive 
them  of  the  fruit  of  their  past  sufferings  in  the  cause  of 
Christ. 

The  Apostle  does  not  say  this  without  a  touch  of 
softened  feeling.  Remembering  the  trials  these  Galatians 
had  formerly  endured,  the  sacrifices  they  had  made  in 
accepting  the  gospel,  he  cannot  bear  to  think  of  their 
apostasy.  Hope  breaks  through  his  fear,  grief  passes 
into  tenderness  as  he  adds,  "  If  it  be  indeed  in  vain." 
The  link  of  reminiscence  connecting  vv.  3  and  4  is  the 
same  as  that  we  find  in  i  Thess.  i.  6  :  "  Ye  received 
the  word  in  much  affliction,  with  joy  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  * 

We  need  not  seek  for  any  peculiar  cause  of  these 
sufferings  ;  nor  wonder  that  the  Apostle  does  not 
mention  them  elsewhere.  Every  infant  Church  had 
its  baptism  of  persecutbn.  No  one  could  come  out 
of  heathen  society  and  espouse  the  cause  of  Jesus, 
without  making  himself  a  mark  for  ridicule  and  violence, 
without  the  rupture  of  family  and  public  ties,  and  many 
painful  sacrifices.  The  hatred  of  Paul's  fellow-country- 
men towards  him  was  an  additional  cause  of  persecu- 
tion   to   the  Churches    he   had   founded.      They   were 


♦  Comp.  2  Thess.  i.  4—6  ;  Ph.  i.  28—30  ;  Rom.  viii.  17  ;  2  Tim.  i.  8 

12 


178  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

followers  of  the  crucified  Nazarene,  of  the  apostate 
Saul.  And  they  had  to  suffer  for  it.  With  the  joy  of 
their  new  life  in  Christ,  there  had  come  sharp  pangs  of 
loss  and  grief,  heart-wounds  deep  and  lasting.  This 
slight  allusion  sufficiently  reminds  the  Apostle's  readers 
of  what  they  had  passed  through  at  the  time  of  their 
conversion. 

And  now  were  they  going  to  surrender  the  faith  won 
by  such  a  struggle  ?  Would  they  let  themselves  be 
cheated  of  blessings  which  had  cost  them  so  dear? 
"  So  many  things ^^  he  asks,  "did  you  suffer  in  vain  ?" 
He  will  not  believe  it.  He  cannot  think  that  this  brave 
beginning  will  have  so  mean  an  ending.  If  God 
counts  them  worthy  of  His  kingdom  for  which  they 
suffered/'  let  them  not  deem  themselves  unworthy. 
Surely  they  have  not  escaped  from  the  tyranny  of 
heathenism,  in  order  to  yield  up  their  liberties  to 
Jewish  intrigue,  to  the  cozenage  of  false  brethren  who 
seek  to  exalt  themselves  at  their  expense  (ch.  ii.  4  ; 
iv.  17;  vi.  12,  13).  Will  flattery  beguile  from  them 
the  treasure  to  which  persecution  had  made  them  cling 
the  more  closely  ? 

Too  often,  alas,  the  Galatian  defection  is  repeated. 
The  generous  devotion  of  youth  is  followed  by  the 
lethargy  and  formalism  of  a  prosperous  age;  and  the 
man  who  at  twenty-five  was  a  pattern  of  godly  zeal, 
at  fifty  is  a  finished  worldling.  The  Christ  whom  he 
adored,  the  cross  at  which  he  bowed  in  those  early 
days — he  seldom  thinks  of  them  now.  "  I  remember 
thee,  the  kindness  of  thy  youth,  the  love  of  thine  espousals; 
how  thou  wentest  after  Me  in  the  wilderness."  Success 
has  spoiled  him.  The  world's  glamour  has  bewitched 
him.     He  bids  fair  to  "  end  in  the  flesh." 

In  a  broader  sense,  the  Apostle's  question  addresses 


iii.  i-S.]  THE   GAL  AT/AN  FOLLY.  179 

itself  to  Churches  and  communities  untrue  to  the 
spiritual  principles  that  gave  them  biith.  The  faith 
of  the  primitive  Church,  that  endured  three  centuries 
of  persecution,  yielded  its  purity  to  Imperial  blandish- 
ments.  Our  fathers,  Puritan  and  Scottish,  staked  their 
lives  for  the  crown-rights  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
freedom  of  faith.  Through  generations  they  endured 
social  and  civil  ostracism  in  the  cause  of  religious 
liberty.  And  now  that  the  battle  is  won,  there  are 
those  amongst  their  children  who  scarcely  care  to  know 
what  the  struggle  was  about.  Out  of  indolence  of 
mind  or  vanity  of  scepticism,  they  abandon  at  the 
bidding  of  priest  or  sr  phist  the  spiritual  heritage 
bequeathed  to  them.  Did  tliey  then  suffer  so  many 
things  in  vain  ?  Was  it  an  illusion  that  sustained 
those  heroic  souls,  and  enabled  them  to  ''  stop  the 
mouths  of  lions  and  subdue  kingdoms  "  ?  Was  it  for 
nought  that  so  many  of  Christ's  witnesses  in  these 
realms  since  the  Reformation  days  have  suffered  the 
loss  of  all  things  rather  than  yield  by  subjection  to 
a  usurping  and  worldly  priesthood  ?  And  can  we, 
reaping  the  fruit  of  their  faith  and  courage,  afford  in 
these  altered  times  to  dispense  with  the  principles  whose 
maintenance  cost  our  forefathers  so  dear  a  price  ? 

*'0  foolish  Galatians,"  Paul  in  that  case  might  well 
say  to  us  again  I 


CHAPTER    XII. 

ABRAHAM'S  BLESSING  AND  THE  LAWS  CURSE, 

"  Even  as  Abraham  believed  God,  and  it  was  reckoned  unto  him  for 
righteousness.  Know  therefore  that  they  which  be  of  faith,  the  same 
are  sons  of  Abraham.  And  the  scripture,  foreseeing  that  God  justifieth 
the  Gentiles  by  faith,  preached  the  gospel  beforehand  unto  Abraham, 
saying,  In  thee  shall  all  the  nations  be  blessed.  So  then  they  which  be 
of  faith  are  blessed  with  the  faithful  Abraham.  For  as  many  as  are  of 
the  works  of  the  law  are  under  a  curse  :  for  it  is  written,  Cursed  is  every 
one  which  continueth  not  in  all  things  that  are  written  in  the  book  of 
the  law,  to  do  them.  Now  that  no  man  is  justified  in  the  law  in  the 
sight  of  God,  is  evident :  for,  The  righteous  shall  live  by  faith  ;  and  the 
law  is  not  of  faith  ;  but,  He  that  doeth  them  shall  live  in  them.  Christ 
redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  having  become  a  curse  for  us  : 
for  it  is  written,  Cursed  is  every  one  that  hangeth  on  a  tree  :  that  upon 
the  Gentiles  might  come  the  blessing  of  Abraham  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  that 
we  might  receive  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  through  faith." — Gal.  iii. 
6—14. 

F*'AITH  then,  we  have  learnt,  not  works  of  law,  was 
the  condition  on  which  the  Galatians  received  the 
Spirit  of  Christ.  By  this  gate  they  entered  the  Church 
of  God,  and  had  come  into  possession  of  the  spiritual 
blessings  common  to  all  Christian  believers,  and  of  those 
extraordinary  gifts  of  grace  which  marked  the  Apostolic 
days. 

In  this  mode  of  salvation,  the  Apostle  goes  on  to 
show,  there  was  after  all  nothing  new.  The  righteous- 
ness of  faith  is  more  ancient  than  legalism.  It  is  as 
old  as  AbraJiam.     His  religion  rested  on  this  ground. 


iii.  6-14.]  ABRAHAM  S  BLESSING.  i8i 

'*  The  promise  of  the  Spirit,"  held  by  him  in  trust  for 
the  worldj  was  given  to  his  faith.  "  You  received  the 
Spirit,  God  works  in  you  His  marvellous  powers,  by 
the  hearing  of  faith  —even  as  Abraham  believed  God^ 
and  it  was  reckoned  to  him  for  righteousness."  In  the 
hoary  patriarchal  days  as  now,  in  the  time  of  promise 
as  of  fulfilment,  faith  is  the  root  of  religion ;  grace 
invites,  righteousness  waits  upon  the  hearing  of  faith. 
So  Paul  declares  in  vv.  6 — 9,  and  re-affirms  with 
emphasis  in  ver.  14.  The  intervening  sentences  set 
forth  by  contrast  the  curse  that  hangs  over  the  man 
who  seeks  salvation  by  way  of  law  and  personal  merit. 

Thus  the  two  standing  types  of  religion,  the  two 
ways  by  which  men  seek  salvation,  are  put  in  contrast 
with  each  other — faith  with  its  blessing,  law  with  its 
curse.  The  former  is  the  path  on  which  the  Galatians 
had  entered,  under  the  guidance  of  Paul;  the  latter, 
that  to  which  the  Judaic  teachers  were  leading  them. 
So  far  the  two  principles  stand  only  in  antagonism. 
The  antinomy  will  be  resolved  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
chapter. 

But  why  does  Paul  make  so  much  of  the  faith  of 
Abraham  ?  Not  only  because  it  furnished  him  with  a 
telling  illustration,  or  because  the  words  of  Gen.  xv.  6 
supplied  a  decisive  proof-text  for  his  doctrine  :  he 
could  not  well  have  chosen  any  other  ground.  Abra- 
ham's case  was  the  insta)itia probans  in  this  debate.  "We 
are  Abraham's  seed  : "  *  this  was  the  proud  conscious- 
ness that  swelled  every  Jewish  breast.  "  Abraham's 
bosom"  was  the  Israelite's  heaven:  even  in  Hades  his 
guilty  sons  could  claim  pity  from  "  Father  Abraham  " 
(Luke  xvi.  19 — 31).     In  the  use  of  this  title  was  con- 

*  Matt.  iii.  9  ;  John  viii.  33 — 59. 


1 82  THE  EPISTLE   TO  THE  GALATIANS. 

ccntratcd  all  the  theocratic  pride  and  national  bigotry 
of  the  Jewish  race.  To  the  example  of  Abraham  the 
Judaistic  teacher  would  not  fail  to  appeal.  He  would  tell 
the  Galatians  how  the  patriarch  was  called,  like  them- 
selves, out  of  the  heathen  world  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  God ;  how  he  was  separated  from  his  Gentile 
kindred,  and  received  the  mark  of  circumcision  to  bf 
worn  thenceforth  by  all  who  followed  in  his  steps,  and 
who  sought  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  granted  to 
Abraham  and  his  seed. 

The  Apostle  holds,  as  strongly  as  any  Judaist,  that 
the  promise  belongs  to  the  children  of  Abraham.  But 
wkat  makes  a  son  of  Abraham  ?  "  Birth,  true  Jewish 
blood,  of  course,"  replied  the  Judaist.  The  Gentile,  in 
his  view,  could  only  come  into  a  share  of  the  heritage 
by  receiving  circumcision,  the  mark  of  legal  adoption 
and  incorporation.  Paul  answers  this  question  by 
raising  another.  What  was  it  that  brought  Abraham 
his  blessing  ?  To  what  did  he  owe  his  righteousness  ? 
It  was  faith  :  so  Scripture  declares — "  Abraham  be- 
lieved God."  Righteousness,  covenant,  promise,  bless- 
ing— all  turned  upon  this.  And  the  true  sons  of 
Abraham  are  those  who  are  like  him :  "  Know  then 
that  the  men  of  faith,  these  are  Abraham's  sons."  This 
declaration  is  a  blow,  launched  with  studied  effect  full 
in  the  face  of  Jewish  privilege.  Only  a  Pharisee,  only 
a  Rabbi,  knew  how  to  wound  in  this  fashion.  Like  the 
words  of  Stephen's  defence,  such  sentences  as  these 
stung  Judaic  pride  to  the  quick.  No  wonder  that  his 
fellow-countrymen,  in  their  fierce  fanaticism  of  race, 
pursued  Paul  with  burning  hate  and  set  a  mark  upon 
his  life. 

But  the  identity  of  Abraham's  blessing  with    that 
enjoyed  by  Gentile  Christians  is  not  left  to  rest  on  mere 


iii.  6-I4.J  ABRAHAM'S  BLESSING.  183 

inference  and  analogy  of  principle.  Another  quotation 
clinches  the  argument :  "  In  thee,"  God  promised  to 
the  patriarch,  "  shall  be  blessed  " — not  the  natural  seed, 
not  the  circumcised  alone — but  "  all  the  nations 
(Genlilcs)"  I  *  And  "  the  Scripture  "  said  this,  "  fore- 
seeing" what  is  now  taking  place,  namely,  "that  God 
iustifioth  the  Gentiles  by  faith."  So  that  in  giving 
this  promise  to  Abraham  it  gave  him  his  "gospel  before 
the  time  {TrpoevryfyeKlaaro)."  Good  news  indeed  it  was 
to  the  noble  patriarch,  that  all  the  nations — of  whom 
as  a  wide  traveller  he  knew  so  much,  and  over  whose 
condition  he  doubtless  grieved — were  finally  to  be 
blessed  with  the  light  of  faith  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  God ;  and  thus  blessed  through  himself.  In  this 
prospect  he  "  rejoiced  to  see  Christ's  day ; "  nay  the 
Saviour  tells  us,  like  Moses  and  Elijah,  "  he  saw  it  and 
was  glad."  Up  to  this  point  in  Abraham's  history,  as 
Paul's  readers  would  observe,  there  was  no  mention 
of  circumcision  or  legal  requirement  (ver.  17;  Rom.  iv. 
9 — 13).  It  was  on  purely  evangelical  principles,  by 
a  declaration  of  God's  grace  listened  to  in  thankful 
faith,  that  he  had  received  the  promise  which  linked 
him  to  the  universal  Church  and  entitled  every  true 
believer  to  call  hmi  father.  "So  that  the  men  of  faith 
are  blessed,  along  with  faithful  Abraham." 

I.  What  then,  we  ask,  was  the  nature  of  Abraham's 
blessing  ?  In  its  essence,  it  was  righteousness.  The 
**  blessing  of  vv.  9  and  14  is  synonymous  with  the  **  justi- 
fication "  of  vv.  6  and  8,  embracing  with  it  all  its  fruits 

*  Gen.  xii.  3  :  the  first  promise  to  Abraham.  In  this  text  the  Hebrew 
and  the  Greek  (LXX)  say,  All  ihe  tribes  {families)  of  the  earth.  The 
synonymous  IQvy],  with  its  special  Jewish  connotation,  suited  Paul's 
purpose  better ;  and  it  is  used  in  the  repetition  of  the  promise  Lft  Gen. 
xviii.  18. 


i84  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

and  consequences.  No  higher  benediction  could  come 
to  any  man  than  that  God  should  "count  him  right- 
eous." 

Paul  and  the  Legalists  agreed  in  designating  righteous- 
ness before  God  man's  chief  good.  But  they  and  he 
intended  different  things  by  it.  Nay,  Paul's  conception 
of  righteousness,  it  is  said,  differed  radically  from  that 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  even  of  his  companion  writers 
in  the  New  Testament.  Confessedly,  his  doctrine 
presents  this  idea  under  a  peculiar  aspect.  But  there 
is  a  spiritual  identity,  a  common  basis  of  truth,  in  all 
the  Biblical  teaching  on  this  vital  subject.  Abraham's 
righteousness  was  the  state  of  a  man  who  trustfully 
accepts  God's  word  of  grace,  and  is  thereby  set  right 
with  God,  and  put  in  the  way  of  being  and  doing  right 
thenceforward.  In  virtue  of  his  faith,  God  regarded 
and  dealt  with  Abraham  as  a  righteous  man.  Righteous- 
ness of  character  springs  out  of  righteousness  of  stand- 
ing. God  makes  a  man  righteous  by  counting  him  so ! 
This  is  the  Divine  paradox  of  Justification  by  Faith. 
When  the  Hebrew  author  says,  *^God  counted  it  to 
him  for  righteousness,"  he  does  not  mean  in  lieu  of 
righteousness y  as  though  faith  were  a  substitute  for  a 
righteousness  not  forthcoming  and  now  rendered 
superfluous ;  but  so  as  to  amount  to  righteousness,  with  a 
view  to  righteousness.  This  '*  reckoning  "  is  the  sovereign 
act  of  the  Creator,  who  gives  what  He  demands,  ^'  who 
maketh  alive  the  dead,  and  calleth  the  things  that  are 
not  as  though  they  were"  (Rom.  iv.  17 — 22).  He  sees 
the  fruit  in  the  germ. 

There  is  nothing  arbitrary,  or  merely  forensic  in  this 
imputation.  Faith  is,  for  such  a  being  as  man,  the 
spring  of  all  righteousness  before  God,  the  one  act  of 
the  soul  which  is  primarily  and  supremely  right.     What 


iii.6-i4.]  ABRAHAM'S  BLESSING,  185 

is  more  just  than  that  the  creature  should  trust  his 
Creator,  the  child  his  Father  ?  Here  is  the  root  of  all 
right  understanding  and  right  relations  between  men 
and  God — that  which  gives  God,  so  to  speak,  a  moral 
hold  upon  us.  And  by  this  trust  of  the  heart,  yielding 
itself  in  the  "  obedience  of  faitii "  to  its  Lord  and 
Redeemer,  it  comes  into  communion  with  all  those 
energies  and  purposes  in  Him  which  make  for 
righteousness,  flence  from  first  to  last,  alike  in  the 
earlier  and  later  stages  of  revelation,  man's  righteous- 
ness is  "  not  his  own  ;  "  it  is  "  the  righteousness  that 
is  of  God,  based  upon  faith"  (Phil.  iii.  9).  Faith 
unites  us  to  the  source  of  righteousness,  from  which 
unbelief  severs  us.  So  that  Paul's  teaching  leads  us 
to  the  fountain-head,  while  other  Biblical  teachers  for 
the  most  part  guide  us  along  the  course  of  the  same 
Divine  righteousness  for  man.  His  doctrine  is  required 
by  theirs;  their  doctrine  is  implied,  and  indeed  more 
than  once  expressly  stated,  in  his.* 

The  Old  Testament  deals  with  the  materials  of 
character,  with  the  qualities  and  behaviour  constituting 
a  righteous  man,  more  than  with  the  cause  or  process 
that  makes  him  righteous.  All  the  more  significant 
therefore  are  such  pronouncements  as  that  of  Gen.  xv.  6, 
and  the  saying  of  Hab.  ii.  4,  Paul's  other  leading  quota- 
tion on  this  subject.  This  second  reference,  taken  from 
the  times  of  Israel's  declension,  a  thousand  years  and 
more  after  Abraham,  gives  proof  of  the  vitality  of  the 
righteousness  of  faith.  The  haughty,  sensual  Chaldean 
is  master  of  the  earth.  Kingdom  after  kingdom  he 
has  trampled  down.  Judah  lies  at  his  mercy,  and  has 
no  mercy  to  expect.     But  the  prophet  looks  beyond  tiie 

*  Rom.  viii.  4  ;  I  Cor.  vi.  9 ;  Eph.  v.  9  ;  Tit.  ii.  12— 14  ;  etc. 


1 86  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS, 

storm  and  ruin  of  the  time.  "  Art  Thou  not  fron 
everlasting,  my  God,  my  Holy  One  ?  We  shall  not  die  " 
(Hab.  i.  12).  The  faith  of  Abraham  lives  in  his  breast. 
The  people  in  whom  that  faith  is  cannot  die.  While 
empires  fall,  and  races  are  swept  away  in  the  flood  of 
conquest,  "  The  just  shall  live  by  his  faith."  *  If  faith 
is  seen  here  at  a  different  point  from  that  given  before, 
it  is  still  the  same  faith  of  Abraham,  the  grasp  of  the 
soul  upon  the  Divine  word — there  first  evoked,  here 
steadfastly  maintained,  there  and  here  the  one  ground 
of  righteousness,  and  therefore  of  life,  for  man  or  for 
people.  Habakkuk  and  the  "  remnant "  of  his  day 
were  ''  blessed  with  faithful  Abraham  ; "  how  blessed, 
his  splendid  prophecy  shows.  Righteousness  is  of 
faith  ;  life  of  righteousness  :  this  is  the  doctrine  of  Paul, 
witnessed  to  by  law  and  prophets. 

Into  what  a  life  of  blessing  the  righteousness  of  faith 
introduced  *'  faithful  Abraham,"  these  Galatian  students 
of  the  Old  Testament  very  well  knew.  Twice  f  is  he 
designated  "  the  friend  of  God."  The  Arabs  still  call 
him  el  khalilf — the  friend.  His  image  has  impressed 
itself  with  singular  force  on  the  Oriental  mind.  He 
is  the  noblest  figure  of  the  Old  Testament,  surpassing 
Isaac  in  force,  Jacob  in  purity,  and  both  in  dignity  of 
character.  The  man  to  whom  God  said,  *'  Fear  not, 
Abraham :  I  am  thy  shield  and  thy  exceeding  great 
reward;"  and  again,  "I  am  God  Almighty;  walk 
before  me,  and  be  thou  perfect :  "  on  how  lofty  a  plat- 
form of  spiritual  eminence  was  he  set !     The  scene  of 

*  Of  faith  qualifies  live  in  the  Hebrew  of  the  prophet,  and  in  the 
LXX,  also  in  the  quotation  of  Heb.  x.  38.  The  presumption  is  that 
it  does  so  in  Kom.  i.  17,  and  Gal.  iii.  11.  We  can  see  no  sufificient 
reason  in  these  passages  to  the  contrary. 

t  2  Chron.  xx.  7  ;  Isai.  xli.  8  ;  comp.  Jas.  ii.  23. 


jii.  6- . 4. J  ABA' A II AM ^  BLESSING.  187 

Gen.  xviii.  throws  into  striking  relief  the  greatness  of 
Abraham,  the  greatness  of  our  human  nature  in  him  ; 
when  the  Lord  says,  "  Shall  I  hide  from  Abraham  the 
thing  that  I  do?"  and  allows  him  to  make  his  bold  inter- 
cession for  the  guilty  cities  of  the  Plain.  Even  the  trial 
to  which  the  patriarch  was  subjected  in  the  sacrifice  of 
Isaac,  was  a  singular  honour,  done  to  one  whose  faith 
was  "counted  worthy  to  endure"  this  unexampled  strain. 
His  religion  exhibits  an  heroic  strength  and  firmness, 
but  at  the  same  time  a  large-hearted,  genial  humanity, 
an  elevation  and  serenity  of  mind,  to  which  the  temper 
of  those  who  boasted  themselves  his  children  was 
utterly  opposed.  Father  of  the  Jewish  race,  Abraham 
was  no  Jew.  He  stands  before  us  in  the  morning  light 
of  revelation  a  simple,  noble,  archaic  type  of  man,  true 
"  father  of  many  nations."  And  his  faith  was  the  secret 
of  the  greatness  which  has  commanded  for  him  the 
reverence  of  four  thousand  years.  His  trust  in  God 
made  him  worthy  to  receive  so  immense  a  trust  for  the 
future  of  mankind. 

With  Abraham's  faith,  the  Gentiles  inherit  his  bless- 
ing. They  were  not  simply  blessed  in  him,  through  his 
faith  which  received  and  handed  down  the  blessing, — 
but  blessed  with  him.  Their  righteousness  rests  on  the 
same  principle  as  his.  Religion  reverts  to  its  earlier 
purer  type.  Just  as  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
Melchizedek's  priesthood  is  adduced  as  belonging  to 
a  more  Christlike  order,  antecedent  to  and  underlying 
the  Aaronic  ;  so  we  find  here,  beneath  the  cumbrous 
structure  of  legalism,  the  evidence  of  a  primitive 
religious  life,  cast  in  a  larger  mould,  with  a  happier 
style  of  experience,  a  piety  broader,  freer,  at  once  more 
spiritual  and  more  human.  Reading  the  story  of  Abra- 
ham,  we  witness  the  bright  dawn  of  faith,  it^-.  spring- 


iS8  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

time  of  promise  and  of  hope.  These  morning  hours 
passed  away  ;  and  the  sacred  history  shuts  us  in  to  the 
hard  school  of  Mosaism,  with  its  isolation,  its  mechani- 
cal routine  and  ritual  drapery,  its  yoke  of  legal  exaction 
ever  growing  more  burdensome.  Of  all  this  the  Church 
of  Christ  was  to  know  nothing.  It  was  called  to  enter 
into  the  labours  of  the  legal  centuries,  without  the  need 
of  sharing  their  burdens.  In  the  "  Father  of  the  faithful  " 
and  the  ''  Friend  of  God  "  Gentile  believers  were  to  see 
their  exemplar,  to  find  the  warrant  for  that  sufficiency 
and  freedom  of  faith  of  which  the  natural  children  of 
Abraham  unjustly  strove  to  rob  them. 

II.  But  if  the  Galatians  are  resolved  to  be  under  the 
Law,  they  must  understand  what  this  means.  The 
legal  state,  Paul  declares,  instead  of  the  blessing  of 
Abraham,  brings  with  it  a  curse :  "As  many  as  are  of 
law- works,  are  under  a  curse," 

This  the  Apostle,  in  other  words,  had  told  Peter  at 
Antioch.  He  maintained  that  whoever  sets  up  the  law  as 
a  ground  of  salvation,  "  makes  himself  a  transgressor" 
(ch.  ii.  i8)  ;  he  brings  upon  himself  the  miseiy  of  having 
violated  law.  This  is  no  doubtful  contingency.  The 
law  in  explicit  terms  pronounces  its  curse  against  every 
man  who,  binding  himself  to  keep  it,  yet  breaks  it  in 
any  particular. 

The  Scripture  which  Paul  quotes  to  this  effect,  forms 
the  conclusion  of  the  commination  uttered  by  the  people 
of  Israel,  according  to  the  directions  of  Moses,  from 
Mount  Ebal,  on  their  entrance  into  Canaan  :  ''  Cursed 
is  every  one  that  continueth  not  in  all  things  written 
in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them."  *     How  terribly 

*  Dent,  xxvii.  26;  Jos.  viii.  32 — 35.  All  thinj^s.  given  by  the  LX  X 
in  Uu:  foMiier  passage,  is  wanting  in  the  Hebrew.  But  the  phrase  is  irac 
to  the  spirit  of  this  text,  and  is  read  in  the  ixirallcl  Dent,  xxviii.  15. 


iii.  6i4.]  THE  LAW  S  CUKSE.  189 

had  that  imprecation  been  fulfilled  !  They  had  in  truth 
pledged  themselves  to  the  impossible.  The  Law  had 
not  been  kept — could  not  be  kept  on  merely  legal 
principles,  by  man  or  nation.  The  confessions  of  the 
Old  Testament,  already  cited  in  ch.  ii.  16,  were  proof 
of  this.  That  no  one  had  "  continued  in  ail  things 
written  in  the  law  to  do  them,"  goes  without  saying. 
If  Gentile  Christians  adopt  the  law  of  Moses,  they  must 
be  prepared  to  render  an  obedience  complete  and  un- 
faltering in  every  detail  (ch.  v.  3) — or  have  this  curse 
hanging  perpetually  above  their  heads.  They  will  bring 
on  themselves  the  very  condemnation  which  was  lying 
so  heavily  upon  the  conscience  of  Israel  after  the 
flesh. 

This  sequence  of  law  and  transgression  belonged  to 
Paul's  deepest  convictions.  "  The  law,"  he  says, 
"worketh  out  wrath"  (Rom.  iv.  14,  15).  This  is  an 
axiom  of  Paulinism.  Human  nature  being  what  it  is, 
law  means  transgression  ;  and  the  law  being  what  it  is, 
transgression  means  Divine  anger  and  the  curse  (see  p. 
143).  The  law  is  just  ;  the  penalty  is  necessary.  The 
conscience  of  the  ancient  people  of  God  compelled  them 
to  pronounce  the  imprecation  dictated  by  Moses.  The 
same  thing  occurs  every  day,  and  under  the  most  varied 
moral  conditions.  Every  man  who  knows  what  is  right 
and  will  not  do  it,  execrates  himself.  The  consciousness 
of  transgression  is  a  clinging,  inward  curse,  a  witness 
of  ill-desert,  foreboding  punishment.  The  law  of  con- 
science, like  that  of  Ebal  and  Gerizim,  admits  of  no 
exceptions,  no  intermission.  In  the  majesty  of  its 
unbending  sternness  it  can  only  be  satisfied  by  our 
continuing  in  all  things  that  it  prescribes.  Every 
instance  of  failure,  attended  with  whatever  excuse  or 
condonation,  leaves  upon  us  its  mark  of  self-reproach. 


190  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 

And  this  inward  condemnation,  this  consciousness  of 
guilt  latent  in  the  human  breast,  is  not  self-condemna- 
tion alone,  not  a  merely  subjective  state ;  but  it  proceeds 
from  God's  present  judgement  on  the  man.  It  is  the 
shadow  of  His  just  displeasure. 

What  Paul  here  proves  from  Scripture,  bitter  expe- 
rience had  taught  him.  As  the  law  unfolded  itself  to 
his  youthful  conscience,  he  approved  it  as  *'holy  and 
just  and  good."  He  was  pledged  and  resolved  to 
observe  it  in  every  point.  He  must  despise  himself 
if  he  acted  otherwise.  He  strove  to  be — in  the  sight 
of  men  indeed  he  was — *'  touching  the  righteousness 
which  is  in  the  law,  blameless."  If  ever  a  ma  a  carried 
out  to  the  letter  the  legal  requirements,  and  fulfilled  the 
moralist's  ideal,  it  was  Saul  of  Tarsus.  Yet  his  failure 
was  complete,  desperate  !  While  men  accounted  him  a 
paragon  of  virtue,  he  loathed  himself;  he  knew  that 
before  God  his  righteousness  was  worthless.  The 
"  law  of  sin  in  his  members  "  defied  "  the  law  of  his 
reason,"  and  made  its  power  the  more  sensible  the 
more  it  was  repressed.  The  curse  thundered  by  the 
six  tribes  from  Ebal  resounded  in  his  ears.  And  there 
was  no  escape.  The  grasp  of  the  law  was  relentless, 
because  it  was  just,  hke  the  grasp  of  death.  Against 
all  that  was  holiest  in  it  the  evil  in  himself  stood  up  in 
stark,  immitigable  opposition.  *'  O  wretched  man  that 
I  am,"  groans  the  proud  Pharisee,  *'  who  shall  deliver 
me  ! "  From  this  curse  Christ  had  redeemed  him. 
And  he  would  not,  if  he  could  help  it,  have  the  Galatians 
expose  themselves  to  it  again.  On  legal  principles, 
there  is  no  safety  but  in  absolute,  flawless  obedience, 
such  as  no  man  ever  has  rendered,  or  ever  will.  Let 
them  trust  the  experience  of  centuries  of  Jewish 
bondage. 


iii.  6-14.]  THE  LAW'S  CUKSE.  \^\ 

Verses  II,  12  support  the  assertion  that  the  Law 
issues  in  condemnation,  by  a  fuither,  negative  proof. 
The  argument  is  a  syllogism,  both  whose  premises  are 
drawn  from  the  Old  Testament.  It  may  be  formally 
stated  thus.  Major  premise  (evangelical  maxim)  :  "The 
just  man  lives  of  faith"  *  (vcr.  1 1).  Minor :  The  man  of 
law  does  not  live  of  faith  (for  he  lives  by  doing :  legal 
maxim,  ver.  12).  f  Ergo:  The  man  of  law  is  not  just 
before  God  (ver.  11).  While  therefore  the  Scripture 
by  its  afore-cited  commination  closes  the  dcor  of  life 
against  righteousness  of  works,  that  door  is  opened  to 
the  men  of  faith.  The  two  principles  are  logical  con- 
tradictories. To  grant  righteousness  to  faith  is  to 
deny  it  to  legal  works.  This  assumption  furnishes  our 
minor  premise  in  ver.  12.  The  legal  axiom  is,  "  He  that 
doeth  them  shall  live  in  them  : "  that  is  to  say,  The  law 
gives  life  for  doing — not  therefore  for  believing ;  we  get 
no  sort  of  legal  credit  for  that.  The  two  ways  have 
different  starting-points,  as  they  lead  to  opposite  goals. 
From  faith  one  marches,  through  God's  righteousness, 
to  blessing ;  from  works,  through  self-righteousness,  to 
the  curse. 

The  two  paths  now  lie  before  us — the  Pauhne  and 
the  legal  method  of  salvation,  the  Abrahamic  and  the 
Mosaic  scheme  of  religion.  According  to  the  latter, 
one  begins  by  keeping  so  many  rules — ethical,  cere- 
monial, or  what  not ;  and  after  doing  this,  one  expects 
to  be  counted  righteous  by  God.  According  to  the 
former,  the  man  begins  by  an  act  of  self-surrendering 
trust  in  God's  word  of  grace,  and  God  already  reckons 
him  just  on  that  account,  without  his  pretending  to 
anything  in  the  way  of  merit  for  himself.     In   short, 

•  Hab.  ii.  4.     For  the  construction,  see  note  c^n  p.  1S6. 
f  Lev.  xviii.  5. 

1 


192  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

the  Legalist  tries  to  make  God  believe  in  him  :  Abraham 
and  Paul  are  content  to  believe  in  God,  They  do  not 
set  themselves  over  against  God,  with  a  righteousness 
of  their  own  w^hich  He  is  bound  to  recognise ;  they 
commit  themselves  to  God,  that  He  may  work  out  His 
righteousness  in  them.  Along  this  path  lies  blessing — 
peace  of  heart,  fellowship  with  God,  moral  strength, 
life  in  its  fulness,  depth,  and  permanence.  From  this 
source  Paul  derives  all  that  was  noblest  in  the  Church 
of  the  Old  Covenant.  And  he  puts  the  calm,  grand 
image  of  Father  Abraham  before  us  for  our  pattern, 
in  contrast  with  the  narrow,  painful,  bitter  spirit  of 
Jewish  legalism,  inwardly  self-condemned. 

III.  But  how  pass  from  this  curse  to  that  blessing? 
How  escape  from  the  nemesis  of  the  broken  law  into 
the  freedom  of  Abraham's  faith  ?  To  this  question  ver. 
13  makes  answer  :  '*  Christ  bought  us  out  of  the  curse 
of  the  law,  having  become  a  curse  for  us."  Chrisfs 
redemption  changes  the  curse  into  a  blessing. 

We  entered  this  Epistle  under  the  shadow  of  the 
cross.  It  has  been  all  along  the  centre  of  the  writer's 
thought.  He  has  found  in  it  the  solution  of  the 
terrible  problem  forced  upon  him  by  the  law.  Law 
had  led  him  to  Christ's  cross ;  laid  him  in  Christ's 
grave;  and  there  left  him,  to  rise  with  Christ  a  new, 
free  man,  living  henceforth  to  God  (ch.  ii.  19 — 21). 
So  we  understand  the  purpose  and  the  issue  of  the 
death  of  Jesus  Christ ;  now  we  must  look  more 
narrowly  at  the  fact  itself. 

"Christ  became  a  cuTse  !"  Verily  the  Apostle  was 
not  ''seeking  to  please  or  persuade  men."  This 
expression  throws  the  scandal  of  the  cross  into  the 
strongest  relief.  Far  from  veiling  it  or  apologizing  for 
it,  Paul  accentuates  this  cffence.     His  experience  taught 


iii.6-i4.]  THE  LAWS  CURSE.  I93 


him  that  Jewish  pride  must  be  compelled  to  reckon  with 
it.  No,  he  would  not  have  "  the  offence  of  the  cross 
abolished  "  (ch.  v.  11). 

And  did  not  Christ  become  a  curse  f  Could  the  fact 
be  denied  by  any  Jew  ?  His  death  was  that  of  the 
most  abandoned  criminals.  By  the  combined  verdict  of 
Jew  and  Gentile,  of  civil  and  religious  authority, 
endorsed  by  the  voice  of  the  populace,  He  was  pro- 
nounced a  malefactor  and  blasphemer.  But  this  was 
not  all.  The  hatred  and  injustice  of  men  are  hard 
to  bear;  yet  many  a  sensitive  man  has  borne  them  in 
a  worthy  cause  without  shrinking.  It  was  a  darker 
dread,  an  infliction  far  more  crushing,  that  compelled 
the  cry,  "My  God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me!" 
Against  the  maledictions  of  men  Jesus  might  surely 
at  the  worst  have  counted  on  the  Father's  good 
pleasure.  But  even  that  failed  Him.  There  fell  upon 
His  soul  the  death  of  death,  the  very  curse  of  sin — 
abandonment  by  God!  Men  "did  esteem  Him" — and  for 
the  moment  He  esteemed  Himself — "smitten  of  God." 
He  hung  there  abhorred  of  men,  forsaken  of  His  God ; 
earth  all  hate,  heaven  all  blackness  to  His  view.  Are 
the  Apostle's  words  too  strong  ?  Delivering  up  His 
Son  to  pass  through  this  baptism,  God  did  in  truth 
make  Him  a  curse  for  us.  By  His  "  determinate 
counsel "  the  Almighty  set  Jesus  Christ  in  the  place  of 
condemned  sinners,  and  allowed  the  curse  of  this 
wicked  world  to  claim  Him  for  its  victim. 

The  death  that  befell  Him  was  chosen  as  if  for  the 
purpose  of  declaring  Him  accursed.  The  Jewish  people 
have  thus  stigmatized  Him.  They  made  the  Roman 
magistrate  and  the  heathen  soldier}^  their  instrument  in 
gibbeting  their  Messiah.  "  Shall  I  crucify  your  King  ?  " 
said   Pilate.     "Yes,"  they  answered,  "  crucify  Him  !  " 

I? 


194  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CALATIANS. 


Their  rulers  thought  to  lay  on  the  hated  Nazarene  an 
everlasting  curse.  Was  it  not  written,  "  A  curse  of 
God  is  every  one  that  hangeth  on  a  tree  ?  "  *  This 
saying  attached  in  the  Jewish  mind  a  peculiar  loath- 
ing to  the  person  of  the  dead  thus  exposed.  Once 
crucified^  the  name  of  Jesus  would  surely  perish  from 
the  lips  of  men  ;  no  Jew  would  hereafter  dare  to  pro- 
fess faith  in  Him.  His  cause  could  never  surmount 
this  ignominy.  In  later  times  the  bitterest  epithet  that 
Jewish  scorn  could  fling  against  our  Saviour  (God 
forgive  them  !),  was  just  this  word  of  Deuteronomy, 
hattalily — the  hanged  one. 

This  sentence  of  execration,  with  its  shame  freshly 
smarting,  Paul  has  seized  and  twined  into  a  crown  of 
glory.  "  Hanged  on  a  tree,  crushed  with  reproach — 
accursed,  you  say.  He  was,  my  Lord,  my  Saviour  !  It 
is  true.  But  the  curse  He  bore  was  ours.  His  death, 
unmerited  by  Him,  was  our  ransom-price,  endured  to 
buy  us  out  of  our  curse  of  sin  and  death."  This  is 
the  doctrine  of  the  vicarious  sacrifice.  In  speaking  of 
^'ransom"  and  "redemption,"  using  the  terms  of  the 
market,  Christ  and  His  Apostles  are  applying  human 
language  to  things  in  their  essence  unutterable,  things 
which  we  define  in  their  effects  rather  than  in  them- 
selves. "  We  know,  we  prophesy,  in  part."  We 
know  that  we  were  condemned  by  God's  holy  law  ; 
that  Christ,  Himself  sinless,  came  under  the  law's  curse, 
and  taking  the  place  of  sinners,  "  became  sin  for  us  ; " 

*  The  Hebrew  of  Deut.  xxi.  23  reads  **a  curse  of  God ;"  the  LXX, 
"cursed  by  Cod"  {KeKaTaprifxevos  however,  not  iTriKardparos  as 
in  Paul's  phrase).  The  Apostle  omits  the  two  last  words,  not  inadver- 
tently, as  Meyer  supposes,  for  he  must  have  had  a  painfully  vivid 
remembrance  of  the  wording  of  the  original,  but  out  of  a  reverence  that 
made  it  impossible  to  speak  of  the  Redeemer  as  "accursed  by  God." 


iii.  6-14.]  THE  LAWS  CURSE.  I95 

and  that  His  interposition  has  brought  us  out  of  con- 
demnation into  blessing  and  peace.  How  can  we  con- 
ceive che  matter  otherwise  than  as  it  is  put  in  His 
own  words:  He  ^'gave  Himself  a  ransom — The  Good 
Shepherd  giveth  His  life  for  the  sheep?"  He  suffers 
in  our  room  and  stead  ;  He  bears  inflictions  incurred  by 
our  sins^  and  due  to  ourselves  ;  He  docs  this  at  the 
Divine  Will,  and  under  the  Divine  Law  :  what  is  this 
but  to  "buy  us  out,"  to  pay  the  price  which  frees  us 
from  the  prison-house  of  death  ? 

"Christ  redeemed  ws,"  says  the  Apostle,  thinking 
questionless  of  himself  and  his  Jewish  kindred,  on 
whom  the  law  weighed  so  heavily.  His  redemption 
was  offered  "to  the  Jew  first."  But  not  to  the  Jew 
alone,  nor  as  a  Jew.  The  time  of  release  had  come  for 
all  men.  "  Abraham's  blessing "  long  withheld,  was 
now  to  be  imparted,  as  it  had  been  promised,  to  "  all 
the  tribes  of  the  earth."  In  the  removal  of  the  legal 
curse,  God  comes  near  to  men  as  in  the  ancient  days. 
His  love  is  shed  abroad ;  His  spirit  of  sonship  dwells 
in  human  hearts.  In  Christ  Jesus  crucified,  risen, 
reigning — a  new  world  comes  into  being,  which  re- 
stores and  surpasses  the  promise  of  the  old. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE   COVENANT  OF  PROMISE. 

*  Brethren,  I  speak  after  the  manner  of  men  :  Though  it  be  but  a 
an's  testament,  yet  when  it  hath  been  confirmed,  no  one  maketh  it 
void,  or  addeth  thereto.  Now  to  Abraham  were  the  promises  spoken, 
and  to  his  seed.  He  saith  not,  And  to  seeds,  as  of  many,  but  as  of  one, 
And  to  thy  seed,  which  is  Christ.  Now  this  I  say ;  A  testament  con- 
firmed beforehand  by  God,  the  law,  which  came  four  hundred  and 
thirty  years  after,  doth  not  disannul,  so  as  to  make  the  promise  of  none 
effect.  For  if  the  inheritance  is  of  the  law,  it  is  no  more  of  promise  : 
but  God  hath  granted  it  to  Abraham  by  promise." — Gal,  iii.  15 — 18. 

GENTILE  Christians,  Paul  has  shown,  are  already 
sons  of  Abraham.  Their  faith  proves  their 
descent  from  the  father  of  the  faithful.  The  redemp- 
tion of  Christ  has  expiated  the  law's  curse,  and  brought 
to  its  fulfilment  the  primeval  promise.  It  has  conferred 
on  Jew  and  Gentile  alike  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
sealing  the  Divine  inheritance.  "  Abraham's  blessing  " 
has  "come  upon  the  Gentiles  in  Christ  Jesus."  What 
can  Judaism  do  for  them  more  ?  Except,  in  sooth,  to 
bring  them  under  its  inevitable  curse. 

But  here  the  Judaist  might  interpose  :  "  Granting 
so  much  as  this,  allowing  ihat  God  covenanted  with 
Abraham  on  terms  of  faith,  and  that  believing  Gentiles 
are  entitled  to  his  blessing,  did  not  God  make  a  second 
covenant  with  MoseSj  promising  further  blessings  upon 


iii.  15-iS.]  THE   COVENANT  OF  PROMISE.  197 


terms  of  law  ?  If  the  one  covenant  remains  valid,  why 
not  the  other  ?  From  the  school  of  Abraham  the 
Gentiles  must  pass  on  to  the  school  of  Moses."  This 
inference  might  appear  to  follow,  by  parity  of  reasoning, 
from  what  the  Apostle  has  just  advanced.  And  it 
accords  with  the  position  which  the  legalistic  opposition 
had  now  taken  up.  The  people  of  the  circumcision, 
they  argued,  retained  within  the  Church  of  Christ  their 
peculiar  calling ;  and  Gentiles,  if  they  would  be  perfect 
Christians,  must  accept  the  covenant-token  and  the 
unchangeable  ordinances  of  Israel.  Faith  is  but  the 
first  step  in  the  new  life  ;  the  discipline  of  the  law  will 
bring  it  to  completion.  Release  from  the  curse  of  the 
law,  they  might  contend,  leaves  its  obligations  still 
binding,  its  ordinances  unrepealed.  Christ  "  came  not 
to  destroy,  but  to  fuUil." 

So  we  are  brought  to  the  question  of  the  relation 
of  law  and  prouiise^  which  is  the  theoretical,  as  that  of 
Gentile  to  Jewish  Christianity  is  the  practical  problem 
of  the  Epistle.  The  remainder  of  the  chapter  is  occu- 
pied with  its  discussion.  This  section  is  the  special 
contribution  of  the  Epistle  to  Christian  theology — a 
contribution  weighty  enough  of  itself  to  give  to  it  a  fore- 
most place  amongst  the  documents  of  Revelation.  Paul 
has  written  nothing  more  masterly.  The  breadth  and 
subtlety  of  his  reason,  his  grasp  of  the  spiritual  realities 
-  underlying  the  facts  of  history,  are  conspicuously 
manifest  in  these  paragraphs,  despite  the  extreme 
difficulty  and  obscurity  of  certain  sentences. 

This  part  of  the  Epistle  is  in  fact  a  piece  of  inspired 
historical  criticism;  it  is  a  magnificent  reconstruction  of 
the  course  of  sacred  history.  It  is  Paul's  theory  of 
doctrinal  development,  condensing  into  a  few  pregnant 
sentences    the    rationale    of    Judaism,    explaining    the 


198  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 


method  of  God's  dealings  with  mankind  from  Abraham 
down  to  Christ,  and  fitting  the  legal  system  into  its 
place  in  this  order  with  an  exactness  and  consistency 
that  supply  an  effectual  verification  of  the  hypothesis. 
To  such  a  height  has  the  Apostle  been  raised,  so  com- 
pletely is  he  emancipated  from  the  fetters  of  Jewish 
thought,  that  the  whole  Mosaic  economy  becomes  to 
his  mind  no  more  than  an  interlude,  a  passing  stage  in 
the  march  of  Revelation. 

This  passage  finds  its  counterpart  in  Romans  xi. 
Here  the  past,  there  the  future  fortunes  of  Israel  are 
set  forth.  Together  the  two  chapters  form  a  Jewish 
theodicy,  a  vindication  of  God's  treatment  of  the  chosen 
people  from  first  to  last.  Rom.  v.  12 — 21  and  I  Cor. 
XV.  20 — 57  supply  a  wider  exposition,  on  the  same 
principles,  of  the  fortunes  of  mankind  at  large.  The 
human  mind  has  conceived  nothing  more  splendid  and 
yet  sober,  more  humbling  and  exalting,  than  the  view 
of  man's  history  and  destiny  thus  sketched  out. 

The  Apostle  seeks  to  establish,  in  the  first  place,  the 
fixedness  of  the  Ahrahamic  covenant.  This  is  the  main 
purport  of  the  passage.  At  the  same  time,  in  ver.  1 6, 
he  brings  into  view  the  Object  of  the  covenant^  the 
person  designated  by  it — Christy  its  proper  Heir.  This 
consideration,  though  stated  here  parenthetically,  lies 
at  the  basis  of  the  settlement  made  with  Abraham  ;  its 
importance  is  made  manifest  by  the  after  course  of 
Paul's  exposition. 

At  this  point,  where  the  discussion  opens  out  into  its 
larger  proportions,  we  observe  that  the  sharp  tone  of 
personal  feeling  with  which  the  chapter  commenced  has 
disappeared.  In  ver.  15  the  writer  drops  into  a  concilia- 
tor}'  key.     He  seems  to  forget  the  wounded  Apostle  in 


111.  15-iS.]  HIE   COVEXANT  OF  PROMISE.  I99 

the  theologian  and  instructor  in  Christ.  "  Brethren,"  he 
says,  "  I  speak  in  hiiinan  fashion — I  put  this  matter  in 
a  way  that  every  one  will  understand."  He  lifts  himself 
above  the  Galatian  quarrel,  and  from  the  height  of  his 
argument  addresses  himself  to  the  common  intelligence 
of  mankind. 

But  is  it  covenant^  or  testament,  that  the  Apostle 
intends  here  ?  "I  speak  after  the  manner  of  men," 
he  continues  ;  "  if  the  case  were  that  of  a  man's  BiaO/jKTj, 
once  ratified,  no  one  would  set  it  aside,  or  add  to  it."  The 
presumption  is  that  the  word  is  employed  in  its  accepted, 
every-day  significance.  And  that  unquestionably  was 
"testament."  It  would  never  occur  to  an  ordinary 
Greek  reader  to  interpret  the  expression  otherwise. 
Philo  and  Josephus,  the  representatives  of  contemporary 
Hellenistic  usage,  read  this  term,  in  the  Old  Testament, 
with  the  connotation  of  SuiOi'jkt]  in  current  Greek.*  The 
context  of  this  passage  is  in  harmony  with  their 
usage.  The  "  covenant  "  of  ver.  15  corresponds  to  "the 
blessing  of  Abraham,"  and  "  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  " 
in  the  two  preceding  verses.  Again  in  ver.  17, 
"promise"  and  "covenant"  are  synonymous.  Now 
a  "  covenant  of  promise  "  amounts  to  a  "  testament." 
It  is  the  prospective  nature  of  the  covenant,  the  bond 
which  it  creates  between  Abraham  and  the  Gentiles, 
which  the  Apostle  has  been  insisting  on  ever  since 
ver.  6.  It  belongs  *'  to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed  "  ; 
it  comes  by  way  of  "gift"  and  "grace"  (vv.  18, 
22);  it  invests  those  taking  part  in  it  with  "son- 
ship  "  and  rights  of  "  inheritance  "  (vv.  18,  26,  29, 
etc.)  These  ideas  cluster  round  the  thought  of  a 
testament ;  they  are  not    inherent    in  covenant,  strictly 

*  See  the  able  and  convincing  elucidation  of  SiadriKri  in  Cremer's 
BiblLo-1  hioloi^ical  Lexicon  ojW .7'.  Greek. 


200  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 

considered.  Even  in  the  Old  Testament  this  latter 
designation  fails  to  convey  all  that  belongs  to  the 
Divine  engagements  there  recorded.  In  a  covenant 
the  \.v^o  parties  are  conceived  as  equals  in  point  of  law, 
binding  themselves  by  a  compact  that  bears  on  each 
alike.  Here  it  is  not  so.  The  disposition  of  affairs 
is  made  by  God,  who  in  the  sovereignty  of  His  grace 
*'  hath  granted  it  to  Abraham."  It  was  surely  a  reve- 
rent sense  of  this  difference  which  dictated  to  the  men 
of  the  Septuagint  the  use  of  hiaQi]Kri  rather  than  <jvvQ)]icr\, 
the  ordinary  term  for  covenant  or  compact^  in  their 
rendering  of  the  Hebrew  bcrith. 

This  aspect  of  the  covenants  now  becomes  their 
commanding  feature.  Our  Lord's  employment  of  this 
word  at  the  Last  Supper  gave  it  the  affecting  reference 
to  His  death  which  it  has  conveyed  ever  since  to  the 
Christian  mind.*  The  Latin  translators  were  guided  by 
a  true  instinct  when  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Cove- 
nant they  wrote  testauientum  everywhere,  not  foedus  or 
pactum,  for  this  word.  The  testament  is  a  covenant — 
and  something  more.  The  testator  designates  his  heir, 
and  binds  himself  to  grant  to  him  at  the  predetermined 
time  (ch.  iv.  2)  the  specified  boon,  which  it  remains 
for  the  beneficiary  simply  to  accept.  Such  a  Divine 
testament  has  come  down  from  Abraham  to  his  Gentile 
sons. 

I.  Now  when  a  man  has  made  a  testament,  and  it 
has  been  ratified — "  proved,"  as  we  should  say — // 
stands  go)d  for  ever.     No  one  has  afterwards  any  power 


•  See  Heb.  ix.  16 — 18,  where  so  much  ingenuity  has  been  expended 
to  turn  teslament  into  covenant. 

**  Sweet  is  the  viemory  of  His  name^ 
WIio  blessed  us  in  his  ivill. 


iii.  15  1 8.]         THE  CO  VEX  A  XT  OF  TROMISE.  aoi 


to  set  it  aside,  or  to  attach  to  it  a  new  codicil,  modifying 
its  previous  terms.  There  it  stands — a  document  com- 
plete and  unchangeal^le  (ver.  15). 

Such  a  testament  God  gave  '*  to  Abraham  and  his 
seed."  It  was  "  ratified  "  (or  "  confirmee  ")  by  the 
final  attestation  made  to  the  patriarch  after  the 
supreme  trial  of  his  faith  in  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac  : 
"  By  myself  have  I  sworn,  saith  the  Lord,  that  in 
blessing  I  will  bless  thee,  and  in  multiplying  multiply 
thy  seed  as  the  stars  of  heaven ;  .  .  .  and  in  thy  seed 
shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed."*  In 
human  testaments  the  ratification  takes  place  through 
another;  but  God  "  having  no  greater,"  yet  "to  show 
to  the  heirs  of  the  promise  the  immutability  of  His 
counsel''  confirmed  it  by  His  own  oath.  Nothing  was 
wanting  to  mark  the  Abrahamic  covenant  with  an 
indelible  character,  and  to  show  that  it  expressed  an 
unalterable    purpose   in   the  mind   of  God. 

With  such  Divine  asseveration  "  were  the  promises 
spoken  to  Abraham,  and  his  seedy  This  last  word 
diverts  the  Apostle's  thoughts  for  a  moment,  and  he 
gives  a  side-glance  at  the  person  thus  designated  in  the 
terms  of  the  promise.  Then  he  returns  to  his  former 
statement,  urging  it  home  against  the  Legalists  :  "  Now 
this  is  what  I  mean  :  a  testament  previously  ratified  by 
God,  the  Law  which  dates  four  hundred  and  thirty  years 
later  cannot  annul,  so  as  to  abrogate  the  Promise"  (ver. 
17).  The  bearing  of  Paul's  argument  is  now  perfectly 
clear.  He  is  using  the  promise  to  Abraham  to  over- 
throw the  supremacy  of  the  Mosaic  law.  The  Promise 
was,  he  says,  the  prior  settlement.  No  subsequent 
transaction    could     invalidate     it    or    disqualify    those 

♦  Gen.  x.xii.  8  16— l;  Heb.  vi.  17. 


202  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


entitled  under  it  to  receive  the  inheritance.  That 
testament  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  sacred  history. 
The  Jew  least  of  all  could  deny  this.  How  could  such 
an  instrument  be  set  aside  ?  Or  what  right  has  any 
one  to  limit  it  by  stipulations  of  a  later  date  ? 

When  a  man  amongst  ourselves  bequeaths  his  pro- 
perty, and  his  will  is  publicly  attested,  its  directions  are 
scrupulously  observed ;  to  tamper  with  them  is  a  crime. 
Shall  we  have  less  respect  to  this  Divine  settlement, 
this  venerable  charter  of  human  salvation  ?  You  say, 
The  Law  of  Moses  has  its  rights  :  it  must  be  taken  into 
account  as  well  as  the  Promise  to  Abraham.  True  ;  but 
It  has  no  powder  to  cancel  or  restrict  the  Promise,  older 
by  four  centuries  and  a  half.  The  later  must  be 
adjusted  to  the  earlier  dispensation,  the  Law  interpreted 
by  the  Promise.  God  has  not  made  two  testaments — 
the  one  solemnly  committed  to  the  faith  and  hope  of 
mankind,  only  to  be  retracted  and  substituted  b}^  some- 
thing of  a  different  stamp.  He  could  not  thus  stultify 
Himself.  And  we  must  not  apply  the  Mosaic  enact- 
ments, addressed  to  a  single  people,  in  such  a  way  as 
to  neutralise  the  original  provisions  made  for  the  race 
at  large.  Our  human  instincts  of  good  faith,  our 
reverence  for  public  compacts  and  established  rights, 
forbid  our  allowing  the  Law  of  Moses  to  trench  upon 
the  inheritance  assured  to  mankind  in  the  Covenant 
of  Abraham. 

This  contradiction  necessarily  arises  if  the  Law  is 
put  on  a  level  with  the  Promise.  To  read  the  Law  as 
a  continuation  of  the  older  instrument  is  virtually  to 
efface  the  latter,  to  "  make  the  promise  of  none  eftect." 
The  two  institutes  proceed  on  opposite  principles.  "  If 
the  inheritance  is  of  law,  it  is  no  longer  of  promise  " 
(ver.   1 8).     Law  prescribes  certain  t/hings  to  be  done. 


iii.  15-18,]  THE   COVENANT  OF  PROMISE.  203 

and  guarantees  a  corresponding  reward — so  much  pay 
for  so  much  work.  That,  in  its  proper  place,  is  an 
excellent  principle.  But  the  promise  stands  on  another 
footing  :  "  God  hath  bestowed  it  on  Abraham  by  way  of 
grace'^  {ic^yLipiGTai^^^  ver.  18).  It  holds  out  a  blessing 
conferred  by  the  Promiser's  good  will,  to  be  conveyed 
at  the  right  time  without  demanding  anything  more 
from  the  recipient  than  faith,  which  is  just  the  will  to 
receive.  So  God  dealt  with  Abraham,  centuries  before 
any  one  had  dreamed  of  the  Mosaic  system  of  law. 
God  appeared  to  Abraham  in  His  sovereign  grace ; 
Abraham  met  that  grace  with  faith.  So  the  Covenant 
was  formed.  And  so  it  abides,  clear  of  all  legal  con- 
ditions and  claims  of  human  merit,  an  ^'  everlasting 
covenant"  (Gen.  xvii.  7;  Heb.  xiii.  20). 

Its  permanence  is  emphasized  by  the  tense  of  the 
verb  relating  to  it.  The  Greek  perfect  describes  settled 
facts,  actions  or  events  that  carry  with  them  finality. 
Accordingly  we  read  in  vv.  15  and  17  of  "  a  ratified 
covenant" — one  that  stands  ratified.  In  ver.  18,  "God 
hath  granted  it  to  Abraham " — a  grace  never  to  be 
recalled.  Again  (ver.  19),  "  the  seed  to  whom  the 
promise  hath  been  made  " — once  for  all.  A  perfect 
participle  is  used  of  the  Law  in  ver.  17  {^or^ovi^i),  for 
it  is  a  fact  of  abiding  significance  that  it  was  so  much 
later  than  the  Promise  ;  and  in  ver  24,  ''  the  Law  hath 
been  our  tutor," — its  work  in  that  respect  is  an  endur- 
ing benefit.  Otherwise,  the  verbs  relating  to  Mosaism 
in  this  context  are  past  in  tense,  describing  what  is 
now  matter  of  history,  a  course  of  events  that  has  come 
and  gone.  Meanwhile  the  Promise  remains,  an  im- 
movable certainty,  a  settlement  never  to  be  disturbed. 
The  emphatic  position  of  0  0e6?  (ver.  18),  at  the  very 
end    of  the  paragraph,  serves  to  heighten  this  effect. 


204  '^'i^E  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

"  It  is  God  that  hath  bestowed  this  grace  on  Abraham." 
There  is  a  challenge  in  the  word,  as  though  Paul  asked, 
"Who  shall  make  it  void  ?  "  * 

Paul's  chronology  in  ver.  17  has  been  called  in 
question.  We  are  not  much  concerned  to  defend  it. 
Whether  Abraham  preceded  Moses  by  four  hundred  and 
thirty  years,  as  the  Septuagint  and  the  Samaritan  text 
of  Exod.  xii.  40,  41  affirm,  and  as  Paul's  contemporaries 
commonly  supposed  ;  or  whether,  as  it  stands  in  the 
Hebrew  text  of  Exodus,  this  was  the  length  of  time 
covered  by  the  sojourn  in  Egypt,  so  that  the  entire  period 
would  be  about  half  as  long  again,  is  a  problem  that 
Old  Testament  historians  must  settle  for  themselves ;  it 
need  not  trouble  the  reader  of  Paul.  The  shorter  period 
is  amply  sufficient  for  his  purpose.  If  any  one  had  said, 
"No,  Paul;  you  are  mistaken.  It  was  six  hundred  and 
thirty,  not  four  hundred  and  thirty  years  from  Abraham 
to  Moses ; "  he  would  have  accepted  the  correction  with 
the  greatest  goodwill.  He  might  have  replied,  "  So 
much  the  better  for  my  argument."!  It  is  possible  to 
"strain  out"  the  "gnats"  of  Biblical  criticism,  and  yet 
to  swallow  huge  "  camels  "  of  improbability. 

II.  Ver.  16  remains  for  our  consideration.  In  prov- 
ing the  steadfastness  of  the  covenant  with  Abraham, 
the  Apostle  at  the  same  time  directs  our  attention  to 
the  Person  designated  by  it,  to  whom  its  fulfilment  was 
guaranteed.  "To  Abraham  were  the  promises  spoken, 
and  to  his  seed — *  to  thy  seed,'  which  is  Christ." 

*  Comp.  Rom.  viii.  33,  34;  Acts  xi.  17 ;  2  Cor.  i.  21,  for  a  similar 
emphasis, 

f  We  gain  nothing,  and  we  may  lose  much,  in  "trying  to  settle 
questions  of  Old  Testament  historical  criticism  by  casual  allusions  in 
the  New  Testament."  (See  Mr.  Beet's  sensible  observations,  in  his  Com- 
mentary ad  loc.) 


iii.  iS-iS.]  THE  COVENANT  OF  PROMISE.  205 

This  identification  the  Judaist  would  not  question. 
He  made  no  doubt  that  the  Messiah  was  the  legatee 
of  the  testament,  "  the  seed  to  whom  it  hath  been 
promised."  Whatever  partial  and  germinant  fulfilments 
the  Promise  had  received,  it  is  on  Chiist  in  chief  that 
the  inheritance  of  Israel  devolves.  In  its  true  and  full 
intent,  this  promise,  like  all  predictions  of  the  triumph  of 
God's  kingdom,  was  understood  to  be  waiting  for  His 
advent. 

The  fact  that  this  Promise  looked  to  Christ,  lends 
additional  force  to  the  Apostle's  assertion  of  its  indeli- 
bility. The  words  "  unto  Christ,"  which  were  inserted 
in  the  text  of  ver.  17  at  an  early  time,  are  a  correct 
gloss.  The  covenant  did  not  lie  between  God  and 
Abraham  alone.  It  embraced  Abraham's  descendants 
in  their  unity,  culminating  in  Christ.  It  looked  down 
the  stream  of  time  to  the  last  ages.  Abraham  was  its 
starting-point;  Christ  its  goal.  "To  thee — and  to  thy 
seed  : "  these  words  span  the  gulf  of  two  thousand  years, 
and  overarch  the  Mosaic  dispensation.  So  that  the 
covenant  vouchsafed  to  Abraham  placed  him,  even  at 
that  distance  of  time,  in  close  personal  relationship  with 
the  Saviour  of  mankind.  No  wonder  that  it  was  so 
eVangelical  in  its  terms,  and  brought  the  patriarch  an 
experience  of  religi;  11  which  anticipated  the  privileges  of 
Christian  faith.  God's  covenant  with  Abraham,  being 
in  effect  His  covenant  with  mankind  in  Christ,  stands 
both  first  and  last.  The  Mosaic  economy  holds  a  second 
and  subsidiary  place  in  the  scheme  of  Revelation. 

The  reason  the  Apostle  gives  for  reading  Christ 
into  the  promise  is  certainly  peculiar.  He  has  been 
taxed  with  false  exegesis,  with  "rabbinical  hair- 
splitting" and  the  like.  Here,  it  is  said,  is  a  fine 
example  of  the  art,  familiar  to  theologians,  of  torturing 


2o6  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATJANS. 

out  of  a  word  a  predetermined  sense,  foreign  to  its 
original  meaning.  "  He  doth  not  say,  and  to  seeds,  as 
referring  to  many  ;  but  as  referring  to  one,  and  to  thy 
seed,  which  is  Christ."  Paul  appears  to  infer  from  the 
fact  that  the  word  ''seed"  is  grammatically  singular, 
and  not  plural,  that  it  designates  a  single  individual, 
who  can  be  no  other  than  Christ.  On  the  surface  this 
does,  admittedly,  look  Hke  a  verbal  quibble*  The 
word  "  seed,"  in  Hebrew  and  Greek  as  in  English,  is 
not  used,  and  could  not  in  ordinary  speech  be  used 
in  the  plural  to  denote  a  number  of  descendants.  It  is 
a  collective  singular.  The  plural  applies  only  to 
different  kinds  of  seed.  The  Apostle,  we  may  presume, 
was  quite  as  well  aware  of  this  as  his  critics.  It  does 
not  need  philological  research  or  grammatical  acumen 
to  establish  a  distinction  obvious  to  common  sense. 
This  piece  of  word-play  is  in  reality  the  vehicle  of  an 
historical  argument,  as  unimpeachable  as  it  is  important. 
Abraham  was  taught,  by  a  series  of  lessons,*  to  refer 
the  promise  to  the  single  line  of  Isaac.  Paul  else- 
where lays  great  stress  on  this  consideration ;  he 
brings  Isaac  into  close  analogy  with  Christ;  for  he 
was  the  child  of  faith,  and  represented  in  his  birth  a 
spiritual  principle  and  the  communication  of  a  super- 
natural life.f  The  true  seed  of  Abraham  was  in  the 
first  instance  oyie,  not  many.  In  the  primary  realisation 
of  the  Promise,  typical  of  its  final  accomphshment,  it 
received  a  singular  interpretation  ;  it  concentrated  it- 
self on  the  one,  spiritual  oftspring,  putting  aside  the 
many,  natural  and  heterogeneous  (Hagarite  or  Keturite) 
descendants.     And   this  sifting   principle,    this   law  of 


*  Gen.  xii.  2,  3  ;  xv.  2 — 6  ;  xvii.  4 — 8,  15 — 21  ;  xxii.  16—18 
t  Ch.  iv.  21 — 31  ;  Rom.  iv.  17 — 22;  comp.  Ilcb.  xi.  ii,  12. 


iii.  15-18.]  THE  COVENANT  OF  PROMISE.  207 

election  which  singles  out  from  the  varieties  of  nature 
the  Divine  type,  comes  into  play  all  along  the  line 
of  descent,  as  in  the  case  of  Jacob,  and  of  David.  It 
finds  its  supreme  expression  in  the  person  of  Christ. 
The  Abrahamic  testament  devolved  under  a  law  of 
spiritual  selection.  By  its  very  nature  it  pointed 
ultimately  to  Jesus  Christ.  When  Paul  writes  "  Not 
to  seeds,  as  of  many,"  he  virtually  says  that  the  word  of 
inspiration  was  singular  in  sense  as  well  as  in  form  ; 
in  the  mind  of  the  Promiser,  and  in  the  interpretation 
given  to  it  by  events,  it  bore  an  individual  reference, 
and  was  never  intended  to  apply  to  Abraham's 
descendants  at  large,  to  the  many  and  miscellaneous 
"  children  according  to  flesh." 

Paul's  interpretation  of  the  Promise  has  abundant 
analogies.  All  great  principles  of  human  history  tend  to 
embody  themselves  in  some  "  chosen  seed."  They  find 
at  last  their  true  heir,  the  one  man  destined  to  be  their 
fulfilment.  Moses,  David,  Paul;  Socrates  and  Alexan- 
der ;  Shakespere,  Newton,  are  examples  of  this.  The 
work  that  such  men  do  belongs  to  themselves.  Had 
any  promise  assured  the  world  of  the  gifts  to  be 
bestowed  through  them,  in  each  case  one  might  have 
said  beforehand,  It  will  have  to  be,  "  Not  as  of  many, 
but  as  of  one."  It  is  not  multitudes,  but  men  that  rule 
the  world.  "  By  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world  : 
we  shall  reign  in  life  through  the  one  Jesus  Christ." 
From  the  first  words  of  hope  given  to  the  repentant 
pair  banished  from  Eden,  down  to  the  latest  predictions 
of  the  Coming  One,  the  Promise  became  at  every 
stage  more  determinate  and  individualising.  The 
finger  of  prophecy  pointed  with  increasing  distinctness, 
now  from  this  side,  now  from  that,  to  the  veiled  form 
of  the  Chosen  of  God — *'  the  seed  of  the  w'oman^"  t,he 


2o8  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 

"seed  of  Abraham,"  the  "  star  out  of  Jacob,"  the  "  Son  of 
David/'  the  "  King  Messiah,"  the  suffering  ^'  Servant  of 
the  Lord,"  the  "smitten  Shepherd,"  the  "Son  of  man, 
coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven."  In  His  person  all  the 
lines  of  promise  and  preparation  meet ;  the  scattered 
rays  of  Divine  light  are  brought  to  a  focus.  And  the 
desire  of  all  nations,  groping,  half-articulate,  unites 
with  the  inspired  foresight  of  the  seers  of  Israel  to 
find  its  goal  in  Jesus  Christ.  There  was  but  One  who 
could  meet  the  manifold  conditions  created  by  the 
world's  previous  history,  and  furnish  the  key  to  the 
mysteries  and  contradictions  which  had  gathered  round 
the  path  of  Revelation. 

Notwithstanding,  the  Promise  had  and  has  a  generic 
application,  attending  its  personal  accomplishment. 
"  Salvation  is  of  the  Jews."  Christ  belongs  ''  to  the 
Jew  first."  Israel  was  raised  up  and  consecrated  to 
be  the  trustee  of  the  Promise  given  to  the  world 
through  Abraham.  The  vocation  of  this  gifted  race, 
the  secret  of  its  indestructible  vitality,  lies  in  its 
relationship  to  Jesus  Christ.  They  are  "  His  own," 
though  they  "  received  Him  not."  Apart  from  Him, 
Israel  is  nothing  to  the  world — nothing  but  a  witness 
against  itself.  Premising  its  essential  fulfilment  in 
Christ,  Paul  still  reserves  for  his  own  people  their 
peculiar  share  in  the  Testament  of  Abraham — not  a 
place  of  exclusive  privilege,  but  of  richer  honour  and 
larger  influence.  "  Hath  God  cast  away  His  people  ?  " 
he  asks  :  "  Nay  indeed.  For  I  also  am  an  Israelite,  of 
the  seed  of  Abraham^  So  that,  after  all,  it  is  some- 
thing to  be  of  Abraham's  children  by  nature.  Despite 
his  hostility  to  Judaism,  the  Apostle  claims  for  the 
Jewish  race  a  special  cflice  in  the  dispensation  of  the 
Gospel,   in  the  working  out  of  God's  ultimate  designs 


iiu  15-18.]  THE  COVENANT  OF  TROMISE,  209 

for  mankind.*  Would  they  only  accept  their  Messiah, 
how  exalted  a  rank  amongst  the  nations  awaits  them  I 
The  title  "seed  of  Abraham"  with  Paul,  like  the 
"Servant  of  Jehovah"  in  Isaiah,  has  a  double  signifi- 
cance. The  sufferings  of  the  elect  people  made  them  in 
their  national  character  a  pathetic  type  of  the  great  Suf- 
ferer and  Servant  of  the  Lord,  His  supreme  Elect.  In 
Jesus  Christ  the  collective  destiny  of  Israel  is  attained  ; 
its  prophetic  ideal,  the  spiritual  conception  of  its  calling, 
is  realised, — "  the  seed  to  whom  it  hath  been  pron)ised." 

Paul  is  not  alone  in  his  insistence  on  the  relation 
of  Christ  to  Abraham.  It  is  announced  in  the  first 
sentence  of  the  New  Testament :  "  the  book  of  the 
generation  of  Jesus  Christ,  son  of  Abraham^  son  of 
David."  And  it  is  set  forth  with  singular  beauty  in 
the  Gospel  of  the  Infancy.  Mary's  song  and  Zacharias* 
prophecy  recall  the  freedom  and  simplicity  of  an 
inspiration  long  silenced,  as  they  tell  how  "  the  Lord 
hath  visited  and  redeemed  His  people  ;  He  hath  shown 
mercy  to  our  fathers,  in  remembrance  of  His  holy 
covenant,  the  oath  which  He  sware  unto  Abraham  our 
father."  And  again,  "He  hath  helped  Israel  His 
servant  in  remembrance  of  His  mercy,  as  He  spake 
to  our  fathers,  to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed  for  ever."t 
These  pious  and  tender  souls  who  watched  over  the 
cradle  of  our  Lord  and  stood  in  the  dawning  of  His 
new  day,  instinctively  cast  their  thoughts  back  to  the 
Covenant  of  Abraham.  In  it  they  found  matter  for 
their  songs  and  a  warrant  for  their  hopes,  such  as 
no  ritual  ordinances  could  furnish.  Their  utterances 
breathe  a  spontaneity  of  faith,  a  vernal  freshness  of 


•  Rom.  xi.  Luke  i.  54,  55,  68—73. 

14 


210  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

joy  and  hope  to  which  the  Jewish  people  for  ages  had 
been  strangers.  The  dull  constraint  and  stiffness,  the 
harsh  fanaticism  of  the  Hebrew  nature,  have  fallen 
from  them.  They  have  put  on  the  beautiful  garments 
of  Zion,  her  ancient  robes  of  praise.  For  the  time  of 
the  Promise  draws  near.  Abraham's  Seed  is  now 
to  be  born ;  and  Abraham's  faith  revives  to  meet 
Him.  It  breaks  forth  anew  out  of  the  dry  and 
long-barren  soil  of  Judaism  ;  it  is  raised  up  to  a  richer 
and  an  enduring  life.  Paul's  doctrine  of  Grace  does 
but  translate  into  logic  the  poetry  of  Mary's  and 
Zacharias'  anthems.  The  Testament  of  Abraham 
supplies  their  common  theme. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE  DESIGN  OF  THE  LA  VV, 

**  What  then  is  the  law  ?  It  was  added  because  of  transgressions,  till 
the  seed  should  come  to  whom  the  promise  hath  been  made ;  and  it 
was  ordained  throuj^h  angels  by  the  hand  of  a  mediator.  Now  a 
mediator  is  not  a  viediator  of  one  ;  but  God  is  one.  Is  the  law  then 
against  the  promises  of  God  ?  God  forbid  :  for  if  there  had  been  a  law 
given  which  could  make  alive,  verily  righteousness  would  have  been  of 
the  law.  Howbeit  the  Scripture  hath  shut  up  all  things  under  sin,  that 
the  promise  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  might  be  given  to  them  that 
believe.  But  before  faith  came,  we  were  kept  in  ward  under  the  law, 
shut  up  unto  the  faith  which  should  afterwards  be  revealed.  So  that 
the  law  hath  been  our  tutor  to  bring  us  unto  Christ,  that  we  might  be 
justified  by  faith." — Gal.  iii.  19 — 24. 

1J/' HAT  then  is  the  law'^  So  the  Jew  might  well 
exclaim.  Paul  has  been  doing  nothing  but  dis- 
parage it. — "  You  say  that  the  Law  of  Moses  brings  no 
righteousness  or  blessing,  but  only  a  curse  ;  that  the 
covenant  made  with  Abraham  ignores  it,  and  does  not 
admit  of  being  in  any  way  qualified  by  its  provisions. 
What  then  do  you  make  of  it  ?  Is  it  not  God's  voice 
that  we  hear  in  its  commands  ?  Have  the  sons  of 
Abraham  ever  since  Moses'  day  been  wandering  from 
the  true  path  of  faith  ?  "  Such  inferences  might  be 
drawn,  not  unnaturally,  from  the  Apostle's  denunciation 
of  Legalism.  I  hey  were  actually  drawn  by  Marcion 
in  the  second  century,  in  his  extreme  hostility  to 
Judaism  and  the  Old  Testament. 


212  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

This  question  must  indeed  have  early  forced  itself 
upon  Paul's  mind.  How  could  the  doctrine  of  Salvation 
by  Faith  and  the  supremacy  of  the  Abrahamic  Covenant 
be  reconciled  with  the  Divine  commission  of  Moses  ? 
How,  on  the  other  hand,  could  the  displacement  of  the 
Law  by  the  Gospel  be  justified,  if  the  former  too  was 
authorised  and  inspired  by  God  ?  Can  the  same  God 
have  given  to  men  these  two  contrasted  revelations  of 
Himself?  The  answer,  contained  in  the  passage  before 
us,  is  that  the  two  revelations  had  different  ends  in 
view.  They  are  complementary,  not  competing  insti- 
tutes. Of  the  two,  the  Covenant  of  Promise  has  the 
prior  right ;  it  points  immediately  to  Christ.  The 
Legal  economy  is  ancillary  thereto  ;  it  never  professed 
to  accomplish  the  work  of  grace,  as  the  Judaists  would 
have  it  do.  Its  office  was  external,  but  nevertheless 
accessory  to  that  of  the  Promise.  It  guarded  and 
schooled  the  infant  heirs  of  Abraham's  Testament,  until 
the  time  of  its  falling  due,  when  they  should  be  prepared 
in  the  manhood  of  faith  to  enter  on  their  inheritance. 
"  The  law  hath  been  our  tutor  for  Christ,  with  the 
intent  we  should  be  justified  by  faith "   (ver.   24). 

This  aspect  of  the  Law,  under  which,  instead  of 
being  an  obstacle  to  the  life  of  faith,  it  is  seen  to 
subserve  it,  has  been  suggested  already.  "  For  I,"  the 
Apostle  said,  ^^  through  law  died  to  law  "  (ch.  ii.  19). 
The  Law  first  impelled  him  to  Christ.  It  constrained 
him  to  look  beyond  itself.  Its  discipline  was  a  pre- 
paration for  faith.  Paul  reverses  the  relation  in  which 
Faith  and  Law  were  set  by  the  Judaists.  They  brought 
in  the  Law  to  perfect  the  unfinished  work  of  faith 
(ver.  3) :  he  made  it  preliminary  and  propaedeutic. 
What  they  gave  out  for  more  advanced  doctrine,  he 
treats  as  the  "  weak  rudiments,"  belonging  to  the  infancy 


Hi.  19-24.]  THE  DESIGN  OF  THE  LAW.  213 

of  the  sons  of  God  (ch.  iv.  I — ii).  Up  to  this  point, 
however,  the  Mosaic  law  lias  been  considered  chiefly 
in  a  negative  way,  as  a  foil  to  the  Covenant  of  grace. 
The  Apostle  has  now  to  treat  of  its  nature  more 
positively  and  explicitly,  first  indeed  in  contrast  with  the 
promise  (vv.  19,  20);  and  secondly,  in  its  co-operation 
with  the  promise  {yw.  22 — 24).  Ver.  21  is  the  transition 
from  the  first  to  the  second  of  these  conceptions. 

I.  "  For  the  sake  of  the  transgressions  (committed 
against  it)  *  the  law  was  added."  The  Promise,  let  us 
remember,  was  complete  in  itself.  Its  testament  of 
grace  was  sealed  and  delivered  ages  before  the  Mosaic 
legislation,  which  could  not  therefore  retract  or  modify 
it.  The  Law  was  "  superadded,"  as  something  over 
and  above,  attached  to  the  former  revelation  for  a 
subsidiary  purpose  lying  outside  the  proper  scope  of 
the  Promise.     What  then  was  this  purpose  ? 

I.  For  the  sake  of  transgressions.  In  other  words, 
the  object  of  the  law  of  Moses  was  to  dcvelope  sin. 
This  is  not  the  whole  of  the  Apostle's  answer ;  but 
it  is  the  key  to  his  explanation.  1  his  design  of  the 
Mosaic  revelation  determined  its  form  and  character. 
Here  is  the  standpoint  from  which  we  are  to  estimate 
its  working,  and  its  relation  to  the  kingdom  of  grace. 
The  saying  of  Rom.  v.  20  is  Paul's  commentary  upon 
this  sentence  :  **  The  law  came  in  by  the  way,  in  order 
that  the  trespass  (of  Adam)  might  multiply."  The  same 
necessity  is  expressed  in  the  paradox  of  i  Cor.  xv.  56: 
"  The  strength  of  sin  is  the  law." 

This  enigma,  as  a  psychological  question,  is  resolved 
by  the  Apostle  in  Rom.  vii.  13 — 24.  The  law  acts  as 
a    spur   and  provocative,  rousing  the  power  of  sin  to 

*  TiDv  Tapa^dceuv  :  the  definite  article  can  scarcely  mean  less  than 
this. 


214  1IIE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

conscious  activity.  However  good  ir*  itself,  coming 
into  contact  with  man's  evil  flesh,  its  promulgation  is 
followed  inevitably  by  transgression.  Its  commands 
are  so  many  occasions  for  sin  to  come  into  action, 
to  exhibit  and  confirm  its  power.  So  that  the  Law 
practically  assumes  the  same  relation  to  sin  as  that 
in  which  the  Promise  stands  to  righteousness  and  life. 
In  its  union  with  the  Law  our  sinful  nature  perpetually 
*' brings  forth  fruit  unto  death."  And  this  mournful 
result  God  certainly  contemplated  when  He  gave  the 
Law  of  Moses. 

But  are  we  compelled  to  put  so  harsh  a  sense  on  the 
Apostle's  words  ?  May  we  not  say  that  the  Law  was 
imposed  in  order  to  restrain  sin,  to  keep  it  within 
bounds  ?  Some  excellent  interpreters  read  the  verse 
in  this  way.  It  is  quite  true  that,  in  respect  of  public 
morals  and  the  outward  manifestations  of  evil,  the 
Jewish  law  acted  beneficially,  as  a  bridle  upon  the 
sinful  passions.  But  this  is  beside  the  mark.  The 
Apostle  is  thinking  only  of  inward  righteousness,  that 
which  avails  before  God.  The  wording  of  the  clause 
altogether  excludes  the  milder  interpretation.  For  the 
sake  of  (x^piVy  Latin  gratia)  signifies  promotion,  not 
prevention.  And  the  word  transgression,  by  its  Pauline 
and  Jewish  usage,  compels  us  to  this  view.*  Trans- 
gression presupposes  law.  It  is  the  specific  form  which 
sin  takes  under  law — the  re-action  of  sin  against  law. 
What  was  before  a  latent  tendency,  a  bias  of  disposition, 
now  starts  to  light  as  a  flagrant,  guilty  fact.  By  bring- 
ing about  repeated  transgressions  the  Law  reveals  the 
true  nature  of  sin,  so  that  it  "  becomes  exceeding 
sinful."     It  does  not  make  matters  worse  ;  but  it  shows 

•  Comp.  the  reference  to  this  word  hi  Chapter  IX.,  p.  143. 


iii.  19-24.]  THE   DESIC.N  Of   THE  LA  IV.  21 S 

how  bad  they  really  are.  It  aggravates  the  disease,  in 
order  to  bring  it  to  a  crisis.  And  this  is  a  necessary 
step  towards  the  cure. 

2.  The  Law  of  Moses  was  therefore  a  provisional 
dispensation^ — "added  until  the  seed  should  come  to 
whom  the  promise  hath  been  made."  Its  object  was 
to  make  itself  superfluous.  It  "  is  not  made  for  a 
righteous  man;  but  for  the  lawless  and  unruly"  (l 
Tim.  i.  9).  Like  the  discipline  and  drill  of  a  strictly 
governed  boyhood,  it  was  calculated  to  produce  a 
certain  efi'ect  on  the  moral  nature,  after  the  attainment 
of  which  it  was  no  longer  needed  and  its  continuance 
would  be  injurious.  The  essential  part  of  this  effect 
lay,  however,  not  so  much  in  the  outward  regularity  it 
imposed,  as  in  the  inner  repugnancy  excited  by  it,  the 
consciousness  of  sin  unsubdued  and  defiant.  By  its 
operation  on  the  conscience  the  Law  taught  man  his 
need  of  redemption.  It  thus  prepared  the  platform  for 
the  work  of  Grace.  The  Promise  had  been  given.  The 
coming  of  the  Covenant-heir  was  assured.  But  its  fulfil- 
ment was  far  off".  "  The  Lord  is  not  slack  concerning 
His  promise," — and  yet  it  was  two  thousand  years 
before  "  Abraham's  seed  "  came  to  birth.  The  degen- 
eracy of  the  patriarch's  children  in  the  third  and  fourth 
generation  showed  how  Httle  the  earlier  heirs  of  the 
Promise  were  capable  of  receiving  it.  A  thousand 
years  later,  when  the  Covenant  was  renewed  with 
David,  the  ancient  predictions  seemed  at  last  nearing 
their  fulfilment.  But  no ;  the  times  were  still  unripe ; 
the  human  conscience  but  half-disciplined.  The  bright 
dawn  of  the  Davidic  monarchy  was  overclouded.  The 
legal  yoke  is  made  more  burdensome;  sore  chastise- 
ments fall  on  the  chosen  people,  maiked  out  for  suffering 
as  well  as  honour.     Prophecy  has  many  lessons  yet  to 


2i6  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 

inculcate.    The  world's  education  for  Christ  has  another 
millennium  to  run. 

Nor  when  He  came,  did  "  the  Son  of  man  find  faith 
in  the  earth  "  !  The  people  of  the  Law  had  no  sooner 
Geen  than  they  hated  ''Him  to  whom  the  law  and 
the  prophets  gave  witness."  Yet,  strangely  enough, 
the  very  manner  of  their  rejection  showed  how 
complete  was  the  preparation  for  His  coming.  Two 
features,  rarely  united,  marked  the  ethical  condition  of 
the  Jewish  people  at  this  time — an  intense  moral  con- 
sciousness, and  a  deep  moral  perversion  ;  reverence  for 
the  Divine  law,  combined  with  an  alienation  from  its 
spirit.  The  chapter  of  Paul's  autobiography  to  which 
we  have  so  often  referred  (Rom.  vii.  7 — 24)  is  typical 
of  the  better  mind  of  Judaism.  It  is  the  ne  phis  ultra 
of  self-condemnation.  The  consciousness  of  sin  in 
mankind  has  ripened. 

3.  And  further,  the  Law  of  Moses  revealed  God's 
will  in  a  veiled  and  accommodated  fashion ^  while  the 
Promise  and  the  Gospel  are  its  direct  emanations. 
This  is  the  inference  which  we  draw  from  vv.  19,  20. 

We  are  well  aware  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of 
this  passage.  Ver.  20  has  received,  it  is  computed, 
some  four  hundred  and  thirty  distinct  interpretations. 
Of  all  the  "hard  things  our  beloved  brother  Paul" 
has  written,  this  is  the  very  hardest.  The  words 
which  make  up  the  sentence  are  simple  and  familiar ; 
and  yet  in  their  combination  most  enigmatic.  And 
it  stands  in  the  midst  of  a  paragraph  among  the 
most  interesting  and  important  that  the  Apostle  ever 
wrote. 

Let  us  look  first  at  the  latter  clause  of  ver.  19 : 
"  ordained  through  angels,  in  the  hand  {i.e.  by  means) 
of  a  mediator."     These  circumstances,  as  the  orthodox 


ni.  19-24.]  THE  DESIGN  Of  THE  LAW.  217 

Jew  supposed,  enhanced  the  glory  of  the  Law.  The 
pomp  and  formahty  under  which  Mosaism  was  ushered 
in,  the  presence  of  the  angehc  host  to  whose  agency 
the  terrific  manifestations  attending  the  Law-giving  were 
referred,  impressed  the  popular  mind  with  a  sense  of 
the  incomparable  sacredness  of  the  Sinaitic  revelation. 
It  was  this  assumption  which  gave  its  force  to  the 
climax  of  Stephen's  speech,  of  which  we  hear  an  echo 
in  these  words  of  Paul:  "who  received  the  law  at  the 
disposition  of  angels — and  have  not  kept  it  !  "  *  The 
simplicity  and  informality  of  the  Divine  communion 
with  Abraham,  and  again  of  Christ's  appearance  in  the 
world  and  His  intercourse  with  men,  afford  a  striking 
contrast  to  all  this. 

More  is  hinted  than  is  expressly  said  in  Scripture 
of  the  part  taken  by  the  angels  in  the  Law-giving. 
Deut.  xxxiii.  2  t  and  Ps.  Ixviii.  17  give  the  most 
definite  indications  of  the  ancient  faith  of  Israel  on  this 
point.  But  "  the  Angel  of  the  Lord "  is  a  familiar 
figure  of  Old  Testament  revelation.  In  Hebrew  thought 
impressive  physical  phenomena  were  commonly  asso- 
ciated with  the  presence  of  spiritual  agents.  %  The 
language  of  Heb.  i.  7  and  ii.  2  endorses  this  belief, 
which  in  no  way  conflicts  with  natural  science,  and  is 
in  keeping  with  the  Christian  faith. 

But  while  such  intermediacy,  from  the  Jewish  stand- 
point, increased  the  splendour  and  authority  of  the 
Law,   believers   in   Christ  had  learned   to  look   at   the 

*  Acts  vii.  53  :  comp.  Stara7ds  orfikXwv  and  5tara7ets  5t'  arfikXwv. 
Stephen's  last  words  may  well  have  lingered  in  the  ear  of  Saul.  From 
the  lips  of  Stephen,  they  were  something  of  an  argumcutum  ad hominem. 

t  A  doubtful  citation  at  the  best :  the  reading  of  the  LXX  is  more  to 
the  point  than  the  Hebrew  tcx*^^. 

X  See  the  quotations  from  Jewish  writers  to  this  effect  given  by 
Meyer  01  Liglufoot. 


2i8  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS, 

matter  otherwise.  *  A  revelation  "  administered 
thfoiigh  angels,^'  spoke  to  them  of  a  God  distant  and 
obscured,  of  a  people  unfit  for  access  to  His  presence. 
This  is  plainly  intimated  in  the  added  clause,  '^  by 
means  of  a  mediator,^' — a  title  commonly  given  to  Moses, 
and  recalling  the  entreaty  of  Exod  xx.  19;  Deut.  v.  22  — 
28  :  "  The  people  said,  Speak  thou  with  us,  and  we  will 
hear ;  but  let  not  God  speak  with  us,  lest  we  die." 
These  are  the  words  of  sinful  men,  receiving  a  law 
given,  as  the  Apostle  has  just  declared,  on  purpose  to 
convict  them  of  their  sins.  The  form  of  the  Mosaic 
revelation  tended  therefore  in  reality  not  to  exalt  the 
Law,  but  to  exhibit  its  difference  from  the  Promise  and 
the  distance  at  which  it  placed  men  from  God. 

The  same  thought  is  expressed,  as  Bishop  Lightfoot 
aptly  shows,  by  the  figure  of  "  the  veil  on  Moses'  face," 
which  Paul  employs  with  so  much  felicity  in  2  Cor. 
iii.  13 — 18.  In  the  external  glory  of  the  Sinaitic  law- 
giving, as  on  the  illuminated  face  of  the  Law-giver, 
there  was  a  fading  brightness,  a  visible  lustre  con- 
cealing its  imperfect  and  transitory  character.  The 
theophanies  of  the  Old  Covenant  were  a  magnificent 
veil,  hiding  while  they  revealed.  Under  the  Law, 
angels,  Moses  came  between  God  and  man.  It  was 
God  who  in  His  own  grace  conveyed  the  promise  to 
justified  Abraham  (ver.  i8).t 

*  Comp.  Heb.  ii.  2 — 4;  also  Col.  ii.  15  :  "  iscil.  God)  having  stripped 
off  the  principalities  and  powers  " — the  earlier  forms  of  angelic  media- 
tion. The  writer  may  refer  on  this  latter  passage  to  his  note  in  the 
fulpit  Commentary^  also  to  The  Expositor^  1st  series,  x.  403 — 421. 

t  But  the  title  "  mediator  "  belongs  to  Christ,  given  by  Paul  him- 
self—the "one  mediator  between  God  and  men,  the  man  Christ 
Jesus"  (i  Tim.  ii.  5).  (Comp.  Heb.  viii.  6  ;  ix.  1$  ;  xii.  24.)  Christ 
is  so  styled  however  under  an  aspect  very  different  from  that  in  which 
the  word  appears  here.     *'  There  is  one  metliator,"  the  Apostle  writes 


iii.  19-24-]  THE  DESIGN  OF  THE  LAW.  219 


The  Law  employed  a  mediator ;  the  Promise  did  not 
(ver.  19.).  With  this  contrast  in  our  minds  we  ap- 
proach ver.  20.  On  the  other  side  of  it  (ver.  21),  we  find 
Law  and  Promise  again  in  sharp  antithesis;  The  same 
antithesis  runs  through  the  intervening  sentence.  The 
two  clauses  of  ver.  20  belong  to  the  Law  and  Promise 
respectively.  "  Now  a  mediator  is  not  of  one  : "  that  is 
an  axiom  which  holds  good  of  the  Law.  "  But  God  is 
one  : "  this  glorious  truth,  the  first  article  of  Israel's 
creed,  applies  to  the  Promise.  Where  "a  mediator" 
is  necessary,  unity  is  wanting, — not  simply  in  a 
numerical,  but  in  a  moral  sense,  as  matter  of  feeling 
and  of  aim.  There  are  separate  interests,  discordant 
views  to  be  consulted.  This  was  true  of  Mosaism. 
Although  in  substance  ''holy  and  just  and  good,"  it 
was  by  no  means  purely  Divine.  It  was  not  the  abso- 
lute religion.  Not  only  was  it  defective ;  it  contained, 
in  the  judgement  of  Christ,  positive  elements  of  wrong, 
precepts  given  "for  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts."*  It 
largely  consisted  of  "  carnal  ordinances,  imposed  till 
the  time  of  rectification  "  (Heb.  ix.  10).  The  theocratic 
legislation  of  the  Pentateuch  is  lacking  in  the  unity 
and  consistency  of  a  perfect  revelation.  Its  disclosures 
of  God  were  refracted  in  a  manifest  degree  by  the 
atmosphere  through  which  they  passed. 

"  But  God  is  one."     Mere  again  the  unity  is  moral 

in  I  Timothy,  **  who  gave  Himself  a  ransom  for  all"  the  one  atoning 
mediator.  But  Christ's  manifestation  of  God  was  direct,  as  that  of 
Moses  was  not.  His  Person  does  not  come  between  men  and  God, 
like  that  of  the  Sinaitic  mediator  ;  it  brings  God  into  immediate  contact 
with  men.  Moses  acted  for  a  distant  God  :  Christ  is  Immanuel,  God 
with  us.  On  the  human  side  Christ  is  mediator  (AvOpuiroi  Xpiarbi 
'IrfaoOi')  ;  He  acts  for  individual  men  with  God.  On  the  Z^;W«^  side, 
lie  is  more  than  mediator,  being  God  Himselt 
*  Matt.  xix.  8.     Comp.  Ezek.  xx.  25. 


220  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

and  essential — of  character  and  action,  rather  than  of 
number.  In  the  Promise  God  spoke  immediately  and 
for  Himself.  There  was  no  screen  to  intercept  the 
view  of  faitl>,  no  go-between  like  Moses,  with  God  on 
the  mountain-top  shrouded  in  thunder-clouds  and  the 
people  terrified  or  wantoning  far  below.  Of  all  differ- 
ences between  the  Abrahamic  and  Judaic  types  of  piety 
this  was  the  chief.  The  man  of  Abraham's  faith  sees 
God  in  His  unity.  The  Legalist  gets  his  religion  at 
second-hand,  mixed  with  undivine  elements.  He  be- 
lieves that  there  is  one  God  ;  but  his  hold  upon  the 
truth  is  formal.  There  is  no  unity,  no  simplicity  of 
faith  in  his  conception  of  God.  He  projects  on  to  the 
Divine  image  confusing  shadows  of  human  imperfec- 
tion. 

God  is  One  :  this  great  article  of  faith  was  the 
foundation  of  Israel's  life.  It  forms  the  first  sentence 
of  the  Shema,  the  "  Hear,  O  Israel "  (Deut.  vi.  4 — 9), 
which  every  pious  Jew  repeats  twice  a  day,  and  which 
in  literal  obedience  to  the  Law-giver's  words  he  fixes 
above  his  house-door,  and  binds  upon  his  arm  and 
brow  at  the  time  of  prayer.  Three  times  besides  has 
the  Apostle  quoted  this  sentence.  The  first  of  these 
passages,  Rom.  iii.  29,  30,*  may  help  us  to  understand 
its  application  here.  In  that  place  he  employs  it  as 
a  weapon  against  Jewish  exclusiveness.  If  there  is 
but  "  one  God,"  he  argues,  there  can  be  only  one  way 
of  justification,  for  Jew  and  Gentile  alike.  The  in- 
ference drawn  here  is  even  more  bold  and  singular. 
There  is  "  one  God,"  who  appeared  in  His  proper 
character  in  the  Covenant  with  Abraham.  If  the  Law 
of  Moses  gives  us  a  conception  of  His  nature  in  any 

*  Comp.  I  Cor.  viii.  6 ;  i  Tim.  ii.  5  ;  also  Mark  xii.  29,  30 ;  Jas. 
ii.  19. 


iii.  19-24.J  THE  DESIGN  OF  THE  LAW.  221 

wise  different  from  this,  it  is  because  other  and  lower 
elements  found  a  place  in  it.  Through  the  whole 
course  of  revelation  there  is  one  Cor/-— manifest  to 
Abraham,  veiled  in  Mosaism,  revealed  again  in  His 
perfect  image  in   "  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ." 

II.  So  far  the  Apostle  has  pursued  the  contrast 
between  the  systems  of  Law  and  Grace.  When  finally 
he  has  referred  the  latter  rather  than  the  former  to 
the  "  one  God,"  we  naturally  ask,  "  Is  the  Law  then 
against  the  promises  of  God?"  (ver.  21).  Was  the 
Legal  dispensation  a  mere  reaction,  a  retrogression  from 
the  Promise  ?  This  would  be  to  push  Paul's  argument 
to  an  antinomian  extreme.  He  hastens  to  protest. 
— "The  law  against  the  promises?  Away  with  the 
thought."  Not  on  the  Apostle's  premises,  but  on  those 
of  his  opponents,  did  this  consequence  ensue.  It  is 
they  who  set  the  two  at  variance,  by  tr3qng  to  make 
law  do  the  work  of  grace.  ''  For  if  a  law  had  been 
given  that  could  bring  men  to  life,  righteousness  would 
verily  in  that  case  have  been  of  law"  (ver.  21).  That 
righteousness,  and  therefore  life,  is  not  of  law,  the 
Apostle  has  abundantly  shown  (ch.  ii.  16;  iii.  10 — 
13).  Had  the  Law  provided  some  efficient  means  of 
its  own  for  winning  righteousness,  there  would  then 
indeed  have  been  a  conflict  between  the  two  principles. 
As  matters  stand,  there  is  none.  Law  and  Promise 
move  on  different  planes.  Their  functions  are  distinct. 
Yet  there  is  a  connection  between  them.  The  design 
of  the  Law  is  to  mediate  between  the  Promise  and 
its  fulfilment.  "  The  trespass  "  must  be  "  multiphed," 
the  knowledge  of  sin  deepened,  before  Grace  can  do 
its  office.  Ihe  fever  of  sin  has  to  come  to  its  crisis, 
before  the  remedy  can  take  effect.  Law  is  therefore 
not   the  enemy,  but    the    minister  of  Grace.     It    was 


222  •    THE  EPJSTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

charged  with  a  purpose  lying  beyond  itself.     "Christ 
is  the  end  of  the  law,  for  righteousness"  (Rom.  x.  4). 

I.   For,  in  the  first  place,  the  law  cuts  men  off  from  all 
other  hope  of  salvation. 

On  the  Judaistic  hypothesis,  "  righteousness  would 
have  been  of  law."  But  quite  on  the  contrary,  "  the 
Scripture  shuts  up  everything  under  sin,  that  the 
promise  might  be  given  in  the  way  of  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ,  to  them  that  believe  "  (ver.  22).  Condemnation 
inevitable,  universal,  was  pronounced  by  the  Divine 
word  under  the  Law,  not  in  order  that  men  might 
remain  crushed  beneath  its  weight,  but  that,  abandoning 
vain  hopes  of  self-justification,  they  might  find  in  Christ 
their  true  deliverer. 

The  Apostle  is  referring  here  to  the  general  purport 
of  "  the  Scripture."  His  assertion  embraces  the  whole 
teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  concerning  human 
sinfulness,  embodied,  for  example,  in  the  chain  of 
citations  drawn  out  in  Rom.  iii.  lO — 1 8.  Wherever 
the  man  looking  for  legal  justification  turned,  the 
Scripture  met  him  with  some  new  command  which 
drove  him  back  upon  the  sense  of  his  moral  helpless- 
ness. It  fenced  him  in  with  prohibitions  ;  it  showered 
on  him  threatenings  and  reproaches ;  it  besieged  him  in 
ever  narrowing  circles.  And  if  he  felt  less  the  pressure 
of  its  outward  burdens,  all  the  more  was  he  tormented 
by  inward  disharmony  and  self-accusation. 

Now  the  judgement  of  Scripture  is  not  uttered 
against  this  class  of  men  or  that,  against  this  type  of 
sin  or  that.  Its  impeachment  sweeps  the  entire  area  of 
human  life,  sounding  the  depths  of  the  heart,  searching 
every  avenue  of  thought  and  desire.  It  makes  of  the 
world  one  vast  prison-house,  with  the  Law  for  gaoler, 
and  mankind   held   fast  in   chains   of  sin,  waiting  for 


iii.  19-24-1  THE  DESfCN  OF  THE   LAW.  223 

death.     In  this  position  the  Apostle  had  found  himself 

(Rom.  vii.  24  -viii.  2);  and  in  his  own  heart  he  saw  a 

mirror  of  the  world.     "  Every  mouth  was  stopped,  and 

all  the  world  brought  in  guilty  before  God  "  (Rom.  iii. 

19).     This  condition  he  graphically  describes  in  terms 

of  his  former  experience,  in  ver.  23  :  "  Before  faith  came, 

under  law  we  were  kept  in  ward,  being  shut  up  unto 

the  faith  that  was  to  be  revealed."     The  Law  was  all 

the  while  standing  guard   over  its  subjects,  watching 

and  checking  every  attempt  to  escape,  *  but  intending 

to  hand  them  over  in  due  time  to  the  charge  of  Faith. 

The  Law  posts  its  ordinances,  like  so  many  sentinels, 

round    the    prisoner's    cell.     The    cordon    is  complete. 

He  tries  again  and  again  to  break  out ;  the  iron  circle 

will  not  yield.     But  deliverance  will  yet  be  his.     The 

day   of  Faith    approaches.       It    dawned    long   ago    in 

Abraham's  Promise.     Even  now  its  light  shines  into  his 

dungeon,  and  he  hears  the  word  of  Jesus,  "  Thy  sins  are 

forgiven  thee ;  go  in  peace."    Law,  the  stern  gaoler,  has 

after  all  been  a  good  friend,  if  it  has  reserved  him  for 

this.     It  prevents  the  sinner  escaping  to  a  futile  and 

illusive  freedom. 

In  this  dramatic  fashion  Paul  shows  how  the  Mosaic 
law  by  its  ethical  discipline  prepared  men  for  a  life 
which  by  itself  it  viras  incapable  of  giving.  Where 
Law  has  done  its  work  well,  it  produces,  as  in  the 
Apostle's  earlier  experience,  a  profound  sense  of  personal 
demerit,  a  tenderness  of  conscience,  a  contrition  of  heart 
which  makes  one  ready  thankfully  to  receive  "  the 
righteousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith."  In  every 
age    and    condition    of    life    a    like    effect    is    wrought 

*  Hence    the    present   participle,    avyKXcLbixevoi    (Revised    reading 
of  ver.   23),    in  combination  with  the  imperfect  of  the  foregoing  verl), 


2  24  THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

upon  men  who  honestly  strive  to  live  up  to  an  exacting 
moral  standard.  They  confess  their  failure.  They  lose 
self-conceit.  They  grow  *'  poor  in  spirit,"  willing  to 
accept  "  the  abundance  of  the  gift  of  righteousness  "  in 
Jesus  Christ. 

Faith  is  trebly  honoured  here.  It  is  the  condition  of 
the  gift,  the  characteristic  of  its  recipient  (vv.  22,  24), 
and  the  end  for  which  he  was  put  under  the  charge  of 
Law  (ver.  23).  "  To  them  that  believe  "  is  "  given,"  as 
it  was  in  foretaste  to  Abraham  (ver.  6),  a  righteousness 
unearned,  and  bestowed  on  Christ's  account  (ch.  iii. 
13;  Rom.  V.  17,  18);  which  brings  with  it  the  in- 
dwelling of  the  Holy  Spirit,  reserved  in  its  conscious 
possession  for  Abraham's  children  in  the  faith  of  Christ 
(ch.  iii.  14;  iv.  4).  These  blessings  form  the  com- 
mencement of  that  true  life,  whose  root  is  a  spiritual 
union  with  Christ,  and  which  reaches  on  to  eternity 
(ch.  ii.  20;  Rom.  v.  21  ;  vi.  23).  Of  such  life  the  Law 
could  impart  nothing;  but  it  taught  men  their  need 
of  it,  and  disposed  them  to  accept  it.  This  was  the 
purpose  of  its  institution.  It  was  the  forerunner,  not 
the  finisher,  of  Faith. 

2.  Paul  makes  use  of  a  second  figure  to  describe 
the  office  of  the  Law ;  under  which  he  gives  his  final 
answer  to  the  question  of  ver.  19.  The  metaphor  of  the 
gaoler  is  exchanged  for  that  of  the  tutor.  "  The  law 
hath  been  our  7rai^ay(ji^o<;  for  Christ."  This  Greek 
word  (boy-leader)  has  no  English  equivalent ;  we  have 
not  the  thing  it  represents.  The  ''pedagogue"  was  a 
sort  of  nursery  governor, — a  confidential  servant  in  the 
Greek  household,  commonly  a  slave,  who  had  charge  of 
the  boy  from  his  infancy,  and  was  responsible  for  his 
oversight.  In  his  food,  his  clothes,  his  home-lessons, 
his  play,  his  walks — at  every  point  the  pedagogue  was 


iii.  19-24-]  THE  DESICy  OF  THE   LA  IV.  22$ 

required  to  wait  upon  his  young  cliarge,  and  to  control 
his  movements.  Amongst  other  offices,  his  tutor  might 
have  to  conduct  the  boy  to  school ;  and  it  has  been 
supposed  that  Paul  is  thinking  of  this  duty,  as  though 
he  meant,  "The  Law  has  been  our  pedagogue,  to 
take  us  to  Christ,  our  true  teacher."  But  he  adds, 
"  That  we  might  be  justified  of  faith."  The  "  tutor"  or 
ver.  24  is  parallel  to  the  "guard  "  of  the  last  verse ;  he 
represents  a  distinctly  disciplinary  influence. 

This  figure  implies  not  like  the  last  the  imprisoned 
condition  of  the  subject — but  his  childish,  undeveloped 
state.  This  is  an  advance  of  thought.  The  Law  was 
something  more  than  a  system  of  restraint  and  condem- 
nation. It  contained  an  element  of  progress.  Under 
the  tutelage  of  his  pedagogue  the  boy  is  growing  up  to 
manhood.  At  the  end  of  its  term  the  Law  will  hand 
over  its  charge  mature  in  capacity  and  equal  to  the 
responsibilities  of  faith.  *'  If  then  the  Law  is  a 
TraiSayoyyo^,  it  is  not  hostile  to  Grace,  but  its  fellow- 
worker  ;  but  should  it  continue  to  hold  us  fast  when 
Grace  has  come,  then  it  would  be  hostile"  (Chrysostom). 

Although  the  highest  function,  that  of  "  giving  life," 
is  denied  to  the  Law,  a  worthy  part  is  still  assigned 
to  it  by  the  Apostle.  It  was  "a  tutor  to  lead  men  to 
Christ."  Judaism  was  an  education  for  Christianity. 
It  prepared  the  world  for  the  Redeemer's  coming.  It 
drilled  and  moralised  the  religious  youth  of  the  human 
race.  It  broke  up  the  fallow-ground  of  nature,  and 
cleared  a  space  in  the  weed-covered  soil  to  receive 
the  seed  of  the  kingdom.  Its  moral  regimen 
deepened  the  conviction  of  sin,  while  it  multiplied  its 
overt  acts.  Its  ceremonial  impressed  on  sensuous 
natures  the  idea  of  the  Divine  holiness ;  and  its  sacri- 
ficial rites   gave   definiteness  and   vividness    to  men's 

15 


226  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

conceptions  of  the  necessity  of  atonement,  failing  indeed 
to  remove  sin,  but  awakening  the  need  and  sustaining 
the  hope  of  its  removal  (Ileb.  x.  I — 18). 

The  Law  of  Moses  has  formed  in  the  Jewish  nation 
a  type  of  humanity  like  no  other  in  the  world.  "  They 
dwell  alone,"  said  Balaam,  "  and  shall  not  be  reckoned 
amongst  the  nations."  Disciplined  for  ages  under  their 
harsh  ''  pedagogue,"  this  wonderful  people  acquired  a 
strength  of  moral  fibre  and  a  spiritual  sensibility  that 
prepared  them  to  be  the  religious  leaders  of  mankind. 
Israel  has  given  us  David  and  Isaiah,  Paul  and  John. 
Christ  above  all  was  "  born  under  law — of  David's 
seed  according  to  flesh."  The  influence  of  Jewish 
minds  at  this  present  time  on  the  world's  higher 
thought,  w^hether  for  good  or  evil,  is  incalculable ;  and 
it  penetrates  everywhere.  The  Christian  Church  may 
with  increased  emphasis  repeat  Paul's  anticipation, 
"  What  will  the  receiving  of  them  be,  but  life  from  the 
dead !  "  They  have  a  great  service  still  to  do  for  the 
Lord  and  for  His  Christ.  It  was  well  for  them  and 
for  us  that  they  have  "  borne  the  yoke  in  their  youth." 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE  EMANCIPATED  SONS   OF  GOD. 


« 


But  now  that  faith  is  come,  we  are  no  longer  under  a  tutor.  For 
ye  are  all  sons  of  God,  through  faith  in  Christ  Jesus.  P'or  as  many 
of  you  as  were  baptized  into  Christ  did  put  on  Christ.  There  can  be 
neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  can  be  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  can 
be  no  male  and  female  :  for  ye  all  are  one  man  in  Christ  Jesus.  And 
if  ye  are  Christ's,  then  are  ye  Abraham's  seed,  heirs  according  to 
promise." — Gal.  iii.  25 — 29. 

"  "T~^AITH  has  come!"  At  this  announcement  Law 
-I  the  tutor  yields  up  his  charge ;  Law  the  gaoler 
sets  his  prisoner  at  liberty.  The  age  of  servitude  has 
passed.  In  truth  it  endured  long  enough.  The  iron 
of  its  bondage  had  entered  into  the  soul.  But  at  last 
Faith  is  come  ;  and  with  it  comes  a  new  world.  The 
clock  of  time  cannot  be  put  back.  The  soul  of  man 
will  never  return  to  the  old  tutelage,  nor  submit  again  to 
a  religion  of  rabbinism  and  sacerdotalism.  "  We  are 
no  longer  under  a  pedagogue ;  "  we  have  ceased  to  be 
children  in  the  nursery,  schoolboys  at  our  tasks — "ye 
are  all  sons  of  God.'  In  such  terms  the  newborn,  free 
spirit  of  Christianity  speaks  in  Paul.  He  had  tasted 
the  bitterness  of  the  Judaic  yoke  ;  no  man  more  deeply. 
He  had  felt  the  weight  of  its  impossible  exactions, 
its  fatal  condemnation.  This  sentence  is  a  shout  (f 
deliverance.     **  Wretch  tath  I  am,"  he  had  cried,  "who 


228  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

shall  deliver  me  ? — I  give  thanks  to  God  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ;  ...  for  the  law  of  the  Spirit 
of  life  in  Him  hath  freed  me  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death  "  (Rom.  vii.  24 — viii.  2). 

Faith  is  the  true  emancipator  of  the  human  mind.  It 
comes  to  take  its  place  as  mistress  of  the  soul,  queen 
in  the  realm  of  the  heart ;  to  be  henceforth  its  spring 
of  life,  the  norm  and  guiding  principle  of  its  activity. 
"  The  life  that  I  live  in  the  flesh/'  Paul  testifies,  "  I 
live  in  faith."  The  Mosaic  law — a  S3^stem  of  ex- 
ternal, repressive  ordinances — is  no  longer  to  be  the 
basis  of  religion.  Law  itself,  and  for  its  proper  pur- 
poses, Faith  honours  and  magnifies  (Rom.  iii.  31). 
It  is  in  the  interests  of  Law  that  the  Apostle  insists  on 
the  abolishment  of  its  Judaic  form.  Faith  is  an  essen- 
tially just  principle,  the  rightful,  original  ground  of 
human  fellowship  with  God.  In  the  age  of  Abraham, 
and  even  under  the  Mosaic  regime,  in  the  religion  of 
the  Prophets  and  Psalmists,  faith  was  the  quickening 
element,  the  well-spring  of  piety  and  hope  and  moral 
vigour.  Now  it  is  brought  to  light.  It  assumes  its 
sovereignty,  and  claims  its  inheritance.  Faith  is  come 
— for  Christ  is  come,  its  "author  and  finisher." 

The  efficacy  of  faith  lies  in  its  object.  *'  Works " 
assume  an  intrinsic  merit  in  the  doer;  faith  has  its 
virtue  in  Him  it  trusts.  It  is  the  soul's  recumbency 
on  Christ.  "  Through  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,"  Paul 
goes  on  to  say,  "  ye  are  all  sons  of  God."  Christ 
evokes  the  faith  which  shakes  off  legal  bondage,  leaving 
the  age  of  formalism  and  ritual  behind,  and  beginning 
for  the  world  an  era  of  spiritual  freedom.  *'///  Christ 
Jesus  "  faith  has  its  being ;  He  constitutes  for  the  soul 
a  new  atmosphere  and  habitat,  in  which  faith  awakens 
to  full  existence,  bursts  the  confining  shell  of  legalism, 


iii.  25-290     THE  EMANCIPATED  SONS  OF  GOD.  229 


recognises  itself  and  its  destiny,  and  unfolds  into  the 
glorious  consciousness  of  its  Divine  sonship. 

We  prefer,  with  Ellicott  and  Meyer,  to  attach  the 
complement  "in  Christ  Jesus"  *  to  ''faith"  (so  in  A.V.), 
rather  than  to  the  predicate,  "  Ye  are  sons  " — the  con- 
struction endorsed  by  the  Revised  comma  after  "  faith." 
The  former  connection,  more  obvious  in  itself,  seems  to 
us  to  fall  in  with  the  Apostle's  line  of  thought.  And  it 
is  sustained  by  the  language  of  ver.  27.  Faith  in  Christ, 
baptism  into  Christ,  and  pit  ft  in  i^  on  Christ  are  connected 
and  correspondent  expressions.  The  first  is  the  spiritual 
principle,  the  ground  or  element  of  the  new  life  ;  the 
second,  its  visible  attestation  ;  and  the  third  indicates 
the  character  and  habit  proper  thereto. 

I.  It  is  faith  in  Christ  then  which  constitutes  us  sons 
of  God.  This  principle  is  the  foundation-stone  of  the 
Christian  life. 

In  the  Old  Testament  the  sonship  of  believers  lay  in 
shadow.  Jehovah  was  "the  King,  the  Lord  of  Hosts," 
the  "  Shepherd  of  Israel."  They  are  ''  His  people,  the 
sheep  of  His  pasture  " — "  My  servant  Jacob/'  He  says, 
"  Israel  whom  I  have  chosen."  If  He  is  named  Father, 
it  is  of  the  collective  Israel,  not  the  individual ;  other- 
wise the  title  occurs  only  in  figure  and  apostrophe. 
The  promise  of  this  blessedness  had  never  been  expli- 
citly given  under  the  Covenant  of  Moses.  The  assur- 
ance quoted  in  2  Cor.  vi.  18  is  pieced  together  from 
scattered  hints  of  prophecy.  Old-Testament  faith 
hardly  dared  to  dream  of  such  a  privilege  as  this.  It 
is  not  ascribed  even  to  Abraham.     Only  to  the  kingly 

*  The  phrase ya/V//  in  Christ  J^shs  is  a  link  between  this  Epistle  jnd 
those  of  the  third  and  fourth  groups.  Comp.  Col.  i.  4  ;  Eph.  i.  15  ; 
I  Tim.  lii.  13;  2  Tim.  i.  13;  iii.  15.  More  frequently  in  this  con- 
nection our  *•  in  "  represents  ctj  {inlo),  not  iv  as  here. 


230  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 

"  Son  of  David  "  is  it  said,   "  I  will  be  a  Father  unto 
him  ;  and  he  shall  be  to  me  for  a  son"  (2  Sam.  vii.  14). 

But  "  beloved,  now  are  we  children  of  God"  (i  John 
iii.  2).  The  filial  consciousness  is  the  distinction  of 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  Apostolic  writings 
are  full  of  it.  The  unspeakable  dignity  of  this  relation- 
ship, the  boundless  hopes  which  it  inspires,  have  left 
their  fresh  impress  on  the  pages  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  writers  are  men  who  have  made  a  vast 
discovery.  They  have  sailed  out  into  a  new  ocean. 
The}^  have  come  upon  an  infinite  treasure.  "Thou 
art  no  longer  a  slave,  but  a  son  !  "  What  exultation 
filled  the  soul  of  Paul  and  of  John  as  they  penned 
such  words  !  "  The  Spirit  of  glory  and  of  God  "  rested 
upon  them. 

The  Apostle  is  virtually  repeating  here  what  he  said 
in  vv.  2 — 5  touching  the  "  receiving  of  the  Spirit," 
which  is,  he  declared,  the  distinctive  mark  of  the 
Christian  state,  and  raises  its  possessor  ipso /ado  above 
the  religion  of  externalism.  The  antithesis  of  /lesh 
and  spirit  now  becomes  that  of  sonship  and  pupilage. 
Christ  Himself,  in  the  words  of  Luke  xi.  13,  marked 
out  the  gift  of  ''  the  Holy  Spirit "  as  the  bond  between 
the  "heavenly  Father"  and  His  human  children.  Ac- 
cordingly Paul  writes  immediately,  in  ch.  iv.  6,  7,  of 
"  God  sending  forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  our 
hearts "  to  show  that  we  "  are  sons,"  where  we  find 
again  the  thought  which  follows  here  in  ver.  27,  viz. 
that  union  ivith  Christ  imparts  this  exalted  status.  This 
is  after  all  the  central  conception  of  the  Christian  life, 
Paul  has  already  stated  it  as  the  sum  of  his  own  experi- 
ence :  "  Christ  lives  in  me  "  (ch.  ii.  20).  "  I  have  put 
on  Christ "  is  the  same  thing  in  other  words.  In  ch. 
ii.  20  he  contemplates  the  union  as  an  inner,  vitalising 


iii.  25-29]     THE  EMANCIPATED  SONS  OF  GOD.  231 

force  ;  here  it  is  viewed  as  matter  of  status  and  con- 
dition. The  hcViever  is  invested  wif/i  Chn'sf.  He  enters 
into  the  filial  estate  and  endowments,  since  he  is  in  Christ 
Jesus.  "  For  if  Christ  is  Son  of  God,  and  thou  hast 
put  on  Him,  having  the  Son  in  thyself  and  being  made 
like  to  Him,  thou  wast  brought  into  one  kindred  and 
one  form  of  being  with  Him  "  (Chrysostom). 

This  was  true  of  "  so  many  as  were  baptized  into 
Christ  " — an  expression  employed  not  in  order  to  limit 
the  assertion,  but  to  extend  it  coincidently  with  the 
"  all"  of  ver.  26.  There  was  no  difference  in  this  respect 
between  the  circumcised  and  uncircumcised.  Every 
baptized  Galatian  was  a  son  of  God.  Baptism  mani- 
festly presupposes  faith.  To  imagine  that  the  opus 
operatum,  the  mechanical  performance  of  the  rite  apart 
from  faith  present  or  anticipated  in  the  subject,  "clothes 
us  with  Christ,"  is  to  hark  back  to  Judaism.  It  is  to 
substitute  baptism  for  circumcision — a  difference  merely 
of  form,  so  long  as  the  doctrine  of  ritual  regeneration 
remains  the  same.  This  passage  is  as  clear  a  proof  as 
could  well  be  desired,  that  in  the  Pauline  vocabulary 
"  baptized "  is  synonymous  with  "  believing."  The 
baptism  of  these  Galatians  solemnised  their  spiritual 
union  with  Christ.  It  was  the  public  acceptance,  in 
trust  and  submission,  of  God's  covenant  of  grace — for 
their  children  haply,  as  w-ell  as  for  themselves. 

In  the  case  of  the  infant,  the  household  to  which  it 
belongs,  the  religious  community  which  receives  it  to  be 
nursed  in  its  bosom,  stand  sponsors  for  its  faith.  On 
them  will  rest  the  blame  of  broken  vows  and  responsi- 
bility disowned,  if  their  baptized  children  are  left  to 
lapse  into  ignorance  of  Christ's  claims  upon  them.  The 
Church  which  practises  infant  baptism  assumes  a  very 
serious   obligation.     If  it    takes   no   suffi.Qient  care  to 


232  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

have  the  rite  made  good,  if  children  pass  through  its 
laver  to  remain  unmarked  and  unshepherded,  it  is  sin- 
ning against  Christ.  Such  administration  makes  His 
ordinance  an  object  of  superstition,  or  of  contempt. 

The  baptism  of  the  Galatians  signalised  their  en- 
trance "  into  Christ,"  the  union  of  their  souls  with  the 
dying,  risen  Lord.  They  were  ^'baptized,"  as  Paul 
phrases  it  elsewhere,  "into  His  death,"  to  "walk" 
henceforth  with  Him  "  in  newness  of  life."  By  its  very 
form — the  normal  and  most  expressive  form  of  primi- 
tive baptism,  the  descent  into  and  rising  from  the 
symbolic  waters — it  pictured  the  soul's  death  with 
Christ,  its  burial  and  its  resurrection  in  Him,  its 
separation  from  the  life  of  sin  and  entrance  upon  the 
new  career  of  a  regenerated  child  of  God  (Rom.  vi. 
3 — 14).  This  power  attended  the  ordinance  "through 
faith  in  the  operation  of  God  who  raised  Christ  from 
the  dead"  (Col.  ii.  ii — 13).  Baptism  had  proved  to 
them  "  the  laver  of  regeneration  "  in  virtue  of  "  the 
renewing  of  the  Holy  Spirit,"  under  those  spiritual 
conditions  of  accepted  mercy  and  "justification  by  grace 
through  faith,"*  without  which  it  is  a  mere  law- work, 
as  useless  as  any  other.  It  was  the  outward  and 
visible  sign  of  the  inward  transaction  which  made  the 
Galatian  believers  sons  of  God  and  heirs  of  life  eternal. 
It  was  therefore  a  "putting  on  of  Christ,"  a  veritable 
assumption  of  the  Christian  character,  the  filial  relation- 
ship to  God.  Every  such  baptism  announced  to  heaven 
and  earth  the  passage  of  another  soul  from  servitude 
to  freedom,  from  death  unto  life,  the  birth  of  a  brotlier 
into  the  family  of  God.  From  this  day  the  new  convert 
was   a    memLer   incorporate   of  the    Body  of  Christ, 

*  Rom.  vi.    I,  2;  Tit.   iii.  4 — 7  ("not  of  works.  .  .  that  we  had 
done)." 


iii.  2529.]     THE  EMANCIPATED  SONS  OF  GOD.  233 

affianced  to  his  Lord,  not  alone  in  the  secret  vows  of 
his  heart,  but  pledged  to  Ilini  before  his  fellow-men. 
He  had  put  on  Christ — to  be  worn  in  his  daily  life, 
while  He  dwelt  in  the  shrine  of  his  spirit.  And  men 
would  see  Christ  in  him,  as  they  see  the  robe  upon 
its  wearer,  the  armour  glittering  on  the  soldier's  breast. 
By  receiving  Christ,  inwardly  accepted  in  faith,  visibly 
assumed  in  baptism,  we  are  made  sons  of  God.  He 
makes  us  free  of  the  house  of  God,  where  He  rules  as 
Son,  and  where  no  slave  may  longer  stay.  Those 
who  called  themselves  "  Abraham's  seed  "  and  yet  were 
"  slaves  of  sin,"  must  be  driven  from  the  place  in  God's 
household  which  they  dishonoured,  and  must  forfeit 
their  abused  prerogatives.  They  were  not  Abraham's 
children,  for  they  were  utterly  unlike  him ;  the  Devil 
surely  was  their  father,  whom  by  their  lusts  they 
featured.  So  Christ  declared  to  the  unbelieving  Jews 
(John  viii.  31 — 44).  And  so  the  Apostle  identifies  the 
children  of  Abraham  with  the  sons  of  God,  by  faith 
united  to  "the  Son."  Alike  in  the  historical  sonship 
toward  Abraham  and  the  supernatural  sonship  toward 
God,  Christ  is  the  ground  of  filiation.  Our  sonship  is 
grafted  upon  His.  He  is  "  the  vine,"  we  "  branches  "  in 
Him.  He  is  tJie  seed  of  Abraham,  the  Son  of  God  ;  we, 
sons  of  God  and  Abraham's  seed — "if  we  are  Christ's." 
Through  Him  we  derive  from  God  ;  through  Him  all 
that  is  best  in  the  life  of  humanity  comes  down  to  us. 
Christ  is  the  central  stock,  the  spiritual  root  of  the 
human  race.  His  manifestation  reveals  God  to  man, 
and  man  also  to  himself.  In  Jesus  Christ  we  regain 
the  Divine  image,  stamped  upon  us  in  Him  at  our 
creation  (Col.  i.  15,  16;  iii.  10,  li),  the  filial  like- 
ness to  God  which  constitutes  man's  proper  nature. 
Its  attainment  is  the  essential   blessing,   the    promise 


234  THE  EPISTLE    TO    7 HE   GALATIANS, 

which  descended  from  Abraham  along  the  succession  of 
faith. 

Now  this  dignity  belongs  universally  to  Christian 
faith.  "Ye  are  «///'  the  Apostle  says,  "sons  of  God 
through  faith  in  Him."  Sonship  is  a  human,  not  a 
Jewish  distinction.  The  discipline  Israel  had  endured, 
it  endured  for  the  world.  The  Gentiles  have  no  need 
to  pass  through  it  again.  Abraham's  blessing,  when  it 
came,  was  to  embrace  "all  the  families  of  the  earth." 
The  new  life  in  Christ  in  which  it  is  realised,  is  as 
large  in  scope  as  it  is  complete  in  nature.  "  Faith  in 
Christ  Jesus"  is  a  condition  that  opens  the  door  to 
every  human  being, — "Jew  or  Greek,  bond  or  free, 
male  or  female."  If  then  baptized,  believing  Gentiles 
are  sons  of  God,  they  stand  already  on  a  level  higher 
than  any  to  which  Mosaism  raised  its  professors. 
"  Putting  on  Christ,"  they  are  robed  in  a  righteousness 
brighter  and  purer  than  that  of  the  most  blameless 
legalist.  What  can  Judaism  do  for  them  more  ?  How 
could  they  wish  to  cover  their  glorious  dress  with  its 
faded,  worn-out  garments  ?  To  add  circumcision  to 
their  faith  would  be  not  to  rise,  but  to  sink  from  the 
state  of  sons  to  that  of  serfs. 

II.  On  this  first  principle  of  the  new  life  there  rests 
a  second.  The  sons  of  God  are  brethren  to  each  other. 
Christianity  is  the  perfection  of  society,  as  well  as  of  the 
individual.  The  faith  of  Christ  restores  the  broken  unity 
of  mankind.  "  In  Christ  Jesus  there  is  no  Jew  or 
Greek ;  there  is  no  bondman  or  freeman  ;  there  is  no 
male  and  female.     You  are  all  one  in  Him." 

The  Galatian  believer  at  his  baptism  had  entered  a 
communion  which  gave  him  for  the  first  time  the  sense 
of  a  common  humanity.  In  Jesus  Christ  he  found  a 
bond  of  union  with  his  fellows,  an  identity  of  interest 


iii.  25-29.]     THE  EMAXCIFATED  SONS  OF  GOD.  235 


and  aim  so  commanding  that  in  its  presence  secular 
differences  appeared  as  nothing.  From  the  height  to 
which  his  Divine  adoption  raised  him  these  things 
were  invisible.  Distinctions  of  race,  of  rank,  even  that 
of  sex,  which  bulk  so  largely  in  our  outward  life  and 
are  sustained  by  all  the  force  of  pride  and  habit,  are 
forgotten  here.  These  dividing  hues  and  party-walls 
have  no  power  to  sunder  us  from  Christ,  nor  therefore 
from  each  other  in  Christ.  The  tide  of  Divine  love  and 
joy  which  through  the  gate  of  faith  poured  into  the 
souls  of  these  Gentiles  of  "  many  nations,"  submerged 
all  barriers.  They  are  one  in  the  brotherhood  of  the 
eternal  life.  When  one  says  "  I  am  a  child  of  God," 
one  no  longer  thinks,  "  I  am  a  Greek  or  Jew,  rich  or 
poor,  noble  or  ignoble — man  or  w^oman."  A  son  of 
God  ! — that  sublime  consciousness  fills  his  being. 

Paul,  to  be  sure,  does  not  mean  that  these  differences 
have  ceased  to  exist.  He  fully  recognises  them ;  and 
indeed  insists  strongly  on  the  proprieties  of  sex,  and  on 
the  duties  of  civil  station.  He  values  his  own  Jewish 
birth  and  Roman  citizenship.  But  '*  in  Christ  Jesus" 
he  "  counts  them  refuse  "  (Phil.  iii.  4 — 8)  Our  relations 
to  God,  our  heritage  in  Abraham's  Testament,  depend 
on  our  faith  in  Christ  Jesus  and  our  possession  of  His 
Spirit.  Neither  birth  nor  office  affocts  this  relationship 
in  the  least  degree.  "As  many  as  are  led  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the  sons  of  God  "  (Rom.  viii. 
14).  This  is  the  Divine  criterion  of  churchmanship, 
applied  to  prince  or  beggar,  to  archbishop  or  sexton, 
with  perfect  impartiality.  "  God  is  no  respecter  of 
persons." 

This  rule  of  the  Apostle's  was  a  new  principle  in 
religion,  pregnant  with  mimense  consequences.  The 
Stoic    cosmopolitan    philosoph}'    made    a    considerable 


236  THE  EriSJLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

approach  to  it,  teaching  as  it  did  the  worth  of  the 
moral  person  and  the  independence  of  virtue  upon 
outward  conditions.  Buddhism  previously,  and  Moham- 
medanism subsequently,  each  in  its  own  way,  addressed 
themselves  to  man  as  man,  declaring  all  believers  equal 
and  abolishing  the  privileges  of  race  and  caste.  To 
their  recognition  of  human  brotherhood  the  marvellous 
victories  won  by  these  tuo  creeds  are  largely  due.  These 
religious  systems,  with  all  their  errors,  were  a  signal 
advance  upon  Paganism  with  its  "  gods  many  and  lords 
many,"  its  local  and  national  deities,  whose  worship 
belittled  the  idea  of  God  and  turned  religion  into  an 
engine  of  hostility  instead  of  a  bond  of  union  amongst 
men. 

Greek  culture,  moreover,  knd  Roman  government,  as 
it  has  often  been  observed,  had  greatly  tended  to  unify 
mankind.  They  diffused  a  common  atmosphere  of 
thought  and  established  one  imperial  law  round  the 
circuit  of  the  Mediterranean  shores.  But  these  con- 
quests of  secular  civilization,  the  victories  of  arms  and 
arts,  were  achieved  at  the  expense  of  religion.  Poly- 
theism is  essentially  barbarian.  It  flourishes  in  division 
and  ia  ignorance.  To  bring  together  its  innumerable 
gods  and  creeds  was  to  bring  them  all  into  contempt. 
The  one  law,  the  one  learning  now  prevailing  in  the 
world,  created  a  void  in  the  conscience  of  mankind, 
only  to  be  filled  by  the  one  faith.  Without  a  centre  of 
spiritual  unity,  history  shows  that  no  other  union  will 
endure.  But  for  Christianity,  the  Grseco- Roman  civili- 
zation would  have  perished,  trampled  out  by  the  feet 
of  Goths  and  Huns. 

The  Jewish  faith  failed  to  meet  the  world's  demand 
for  a  universal  religion.  It  could  never  have  savtd 
European   society.      Nor  was  it   designed  for  such  a 


iii.  25-29]     THE  EMANCIPATED  SONS  OF  GOD.  237 

purpose.  True,  its  Jehovah  was  "  tlic  God  of  the  whole 
earth."  The  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  Paul 
easily  showed,  had  a  universal  import  and  brought  all 
men  within  the  scope  of  its  promises.  But  in  its  actual 
shape  and  its  positive  institutions  it  was  still  tribal  and 
exclusive.  Mosaism  planted  round  the  family  of  Abra- 
ham a  fence  of  ordinances,  framed  of  set  purpose  to 
make  them  a  separate  people  and  preserve  them  from 
heathen  contamination.  This  system,  at  first  main- 
tained with  difficulty,  in  course  of  time  gained  control 
of  the  Israelitish  nature,  and  its  exclusiveness  was 
aggravated  by  every  device  of  Pharisaic  ingenuity. 
Without  an  entire  transformation,  without  in  fact 
ceasing  to  be  Judaism,  the  Jewish  religion  was  doomed 
to  isolation.  Under  the  Roman  Empire,  in  consequence 
of  the  ubiquitous  dispersion  of  the  Jews,  it  spread  far 
and  wide.  It  attracted  numerous  and  influential  con- 
verts. But  these  proselytes  never  were,  and  never 
could  have  been  generally  amalgamated  with  the  sacred 
people.  They  remained  in  the  outer  court,  worshipping 
the  God  of  Israel  "  afar  off"  (Eph.  ii.  1 1 — 22  ;  iii.  4 — 6). 
This  particularism  of  the  Mosaic  system  was,  to 
Paul's  mind,  a  proof  of  its  temporary  character.  The 
abiding  faith,  the  faith  of  "Abraham  and  his  seed," 
must  be  broad  as  humanity.  It  could  know  nothing 
of  Jew  and  Gentile,  of  master  and  slave,  nor  even  of 
man  and  woman  ;  it  knows  only  the  soul  ami  God.  The 
gospel  of  Christ  allied  itself  thus  with  the  nascent  in- 
stinct of  humanity,  the  fellow-feeling  of  the  race.  It 
adopted  the  sentiment  of  the  Roman  poet,  himself  an  en- 
franchised slave,  who  wrote  :  Homo  sum,  et  Jiumaiif 
a  me  nil  alieiinm  puto.  In  our  religion  human  kinship 
at  last  receives  adequate  expression.  The  Son  of  man 
lays  the  foundation   of  a  world-wide  fraternity.     The 


238  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

one  Father  claims  all  men  for  His  sons  in  Christ.  A 
new,  tenderer,  holier  humanity  is  formed  around  His 
cross.  Men  of  the  most  distant  climes  and  races, 
coming  across  their  ancient  battle-fields,  clasp  each 
other's  hands  and  say,  ^*  Beloved,  if  God  so  loved  us, 
we  ought  also  to  love  one  another." 

The  practice  of  the  Church  has  fallen  far  below  the 
doctrine  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles.  In  this  respect 
Mohammedans  and  Buddhists  might  teach  Christian 
congregations  a  lesson  of  fraternity.  The  arrangements 
of  our  public  worship  seem  often  designed  expressly 
to  emphasize  social  distinctions,  and  to  remind  the  poor 
man  of  his  inequality.  Our  native  hauteur  and  con- 
ventionality are  nowhere  more  painfully  conspicuous 
than  in  the  house  of  God.  English  Christianity 
is  seamed  through  and  through  with  caste-feeling. 
This  lies  at  the  root  of  our  sectarian  jealousies.  It  is 
largely  due  to  this  cause  that  the  social  ideal  of  Jesus 
Christ  has  been  so  deplorably  ignored,  and  that  a  frank 
brotherly  fellowship  amongst  the  Churches  is  at  present 
impossible.  Sacerdotalism  first  destroyed  the  Christian 
brotherhood  by  absorbing  in  the  official  ministry  the 
functions  of  the  individual  believer.  And  the  Protestant 
Reformation  has  but  partially  re-established  these  pre- 
rogatives. Its  action  has  been  so  far  too  exclusively 
negative  and  prote'stant,  too  little  constructive  and 
creative.  It  has  allowed  itself  to  be  secularised  and 
identified  with  existing  national  limitations  and  social 
distinctions.  How  greatly  has  the  authority  of  our 
faith  and  the  influence  of  the  Church  suffered  from 
this  error.  The  filial  consciousness  should  produce  the 
fraternal  consciousness.  With  the  former  we  may  have 
a  number  of  private  Christians ;  with  the  latter  only 
can  we  have  a  Church. 


iii.  25-29-]     THE  EMANCirATED  6'OA'S  OF  GOD.  239 

''Ye  are  all,"  says  the  Apostle,  "one  (man)  in  Christ 
Jesus."  The  numeral  is  masculine,  not  neuter — one 
person  (no  abstract  unity),*  as  though  possessing  one 
mind  and  will,  and  that  "  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ." 
Just  so  far  as  individual  men  are  "  in  Christ"  and  He 
becomes  the  soul  of  their  life,  do  they  realise  this  unity. 
The  Christ  within  them  recognises  the  Christ  without, 
as  "  face  answereth  to  face  in  a  glass."  In  this  recog- 
nition social  disparity  vanishes.  We  think  of  it  no 
more  than  we  shall  do  before  the  judgement-seat  of 
Christ.  What  matters  it  whether  my  brother  wears 
velvet  or  fustian,  if  Christ  be  in  him  ?  The  humbleness 
of  his  birth  or  occupation,  the  uncouthness  of  his  speech, 
cannot  separate  him,  nor  can  the  absence  of  these 
peculiarities  separate  his  neighbour,  from  the  love  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  Why  should  these 
differences  make  them  strangers  to  each  other  in  the 
Church  ?  If  both  are  /'//  Clirist,  why  are  they  not  one 
in  Christ  ?  A  tide  of  patriotic  emotion,  a  scene  of  pity 
or  terror — a  shipwreck,  an  earthquake — levels  all  classes 
and  makes  us  feel  and  act  as  one  man.  Our  faith  in 
Christ  should  do  no  less.  Or  do  we  love  God  less  than 
we  fear  death  ?  Is  our  country  more  to  us  than  Jesus 
Christ?  In  rare  moments  of  exaltation  we  rise,  it  may 
be,  to  the  height  at  which  Paul  stts  our  life.  But  until 
we  can  habitually  and  by  settled  principle  in  our 
Church-relations  "know  no  man  after  the  flesh,"  we 
come  short  of  the  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ  (comp. 
John  xvii.  20 — 23). 

The  unity  Paul  desiderates  would  effectually  counter- 
act the  Judaistic  agitation.  The  force  of  the  latter  lay 
in  antipathy.      Paul's  opponents  contended   that  there 

*  Comp.  Epli.  ii.  15  ;  iv.  13  ;  but  muler  in  ii.  14. 

1 


240  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

must  be  "Jew  and  Greek."  They  fenced  off  the  Jewish 
preserve  from  uncircumcised  intruders.  Gentile  non- 
conformists must  adopt  their  ritual ;  or  they  will  remain 
a  lower  caste,  outside  the  privileged  circle  of  the  cove- 
nant-heirs of  Abraham.  Compelled  under  this  pressure 
to  accept  the  Mosaic  law,  it  was  anticipated  that  they 
would  add  to  the  glory  of  Judaism  and  help  to  maintain 
its  institutions  unimpaired.  But  the  Apostle  has  cut 
the  ground  from  under  their  feet.  It  \sfaifh,  he  affirms, 
which  makes  men  sons  of  God.  And  faith  is  equally 
possible  to  Jew  or  Gentile.  Then  Judaism  is  doomed. 
No  system  of  caste,  no  principle  of  social  exclusion  has, 
on  this  assumption,  any  foothold  in  the  Church.  Spiri- 
tual life,  nearness  and  likeness  to  the  common  Savioui 
— in  a  word  character ,  is  the  standard  of  worth  in  His 
kingdom.  And  the  range  of  that  kingdom  is  made  wide 
as  humanity ;  its  charity,  deep  as  the  love  of  God. 

And  "  if  you — whether  Jews  or  Greeks — are  Christ's, 
then  are  you  Abraham's  seed,  heirs  in  terms  of  the 
Promise."  So  the  Apostle  brings  to  a  close  this  part 
of  his  argument,  and  links  it  to  what  he  has  said  before 
touching  the  fatherhood  of  Abraham.  Since  ver.  1 8  we 
have  lost  sight  of  the  patriarch ;  but  he  has  not  been 
forgotten.  From  that  verse  Paul  has  been  conducting 
us  onward  through  the  legal  centuries  which  parted 
Abraham  from  Christ.  He  has  shown  how  the  law  of 
of  Moses  interposed  between  promise  and  fulfilment, 
schooling  the  Jewish  race  and  mankind  in  them  for  its 
accomplishment.  Now  the  long  discipline  is  over. 
The  hour  of  release  has  struck.  Faith  resumes  her 
ancient  sway,  in  a  larger  realm.  In  Christ  a  new, 
universal  humanity  comes  into  existence,  formed  of 
men  who  by  faith  arc  grafted  into  Him.     Partakers  of 


ui.  25-29.]     THE  EMAiXClPATED  SOXS  OE  COD.  241 

Christ,  Gentiles  also  are  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  ;  the 
vvila  scions  of  nature  share  "the  root  and  fatness  of 
the  good  olive-tree."  All  things  are  theirs;  for  they 
are  Christ's  (i  Cor.  iii.  21 — 23). 

Christ  never  stands  alone.  "  In  the  midst  of  the 
Church — firstborn  of  many  brethren  "  He  presents  Him- 
self, standing  "  in  the  presence  of  God  for  us."  He  has 
secured  for  mankind  and  keeps  in  trust  its  glorious 
heritage.  In  Him  we  hold  in  fee  the  ages  past  and 
to  come.     The  sons  of  God  are  heirs  of  the  universe. 


16 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE  HEIR'S  COMING  OF  AGE. 

"  But  I  say  that  so  long  as  the  heir  is  a  child,  he  difTereth  nothing  from 
a  bondservant,  though  he  is  lord  of  all ;  but  is  under  guardians  and 
stewards  until  the  term  appointed  of  the  father.  So  we  also,  when  we 
were  children,  were  held  in  bondage  under  the  rudiments  of  the  world  : 
but  when  the  fulness  of  the  time  came,  God  sent  forth  His  Son,  born  of 
a  woman,  born  under  the  law,  that  He  might  redeem  them  which  were 
under  the  law,  that  we  might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons.  And  because 
ye  are  sons,  God  sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  our  hearts, 
crying,  Abba  Father.  So  that  thou  art  no  longer  a  bondservant,  but 
a  son  ;  and  if  a  son,  then  an  heir  through  God." — Gal.  iv.  I — 7. 

THE  main  thesis  of  the  Epistle  is  now  established. 
Gentile  Christians,  Paul  has  shown,  are  in  the 
true  Abrahamic  succession  of  faith.  And  this  devolution 
of  the  Promise  discloses  the  real  intent  of  the  Mosaic 
law,  as  an  intermediate  and  disciplinary  system. 
Christ  was  the  heir  of  Abraham's  testament ;  He  was 
therefore  the  end  of  Moses'  law.  And  those  who  are 
Christ's  inherit  the  blessings  of  the  Promise,  while 
they  escape  the  curse  and  condemnation  of  the  Law. 
The  remainder  of  the  Apostle's  polemic,  down  to 
ch.  V.  12,  is  devoted  to  the  illustration  and  enforce- 
ment of  this  position. 

In  this,  as  in  the  previous  chapter,  the  pre-Christian 
state  is  assigned  to  the  Jew,  who  was  the  chief  subject 
of  Divine  teaching  in  the  former  dispensation  ;  it  is  set 
forth  under  the  first  person  (ver.  3),  in  the  language  of 


V.  1-7.  THE  HE  IK'S  COMING   OF  AGE.  243 


recollection.  Describing  the  opposite  condition  of  son- 
ship,  the  Apostle  reverts  from  the  first  to  the  second 
person,  identifying  his  readers  wiih  himself  (comp. 
ch.  iii.  25,  26).  True,  the  Gentiles  had  been  in 
bondage  (vv.  7,  8).  This  goes  without  saying.  Paul's 
object  is  to  show  that  Judaism  is  a  bondage.  Upon 
this  he  insists  with  all  the  emphasis  he  can  command. 
Moreover,  the  legal  system  contained  worldly,  un- 
spiritual  elements,  crude  and  childish  conceptions  of 
truth,  marking  it,  in  comparison  with  Christianity,  as 
an  inferior  religion.  Let  the  Galatians  be  convinced 
of  this,  and  they  will  understand  what  Paul  is  going 
to  say  directly;  they  will  perceive  that  Judaic  conformity 
is  for  them  a  backsliding  in  the  direction  of  their 
former  heathenism  (vv.  8 — 10).  But  the  force  of  this 
latter  warning  is  discounted  and  its  effect  weakened 
when  he  is  supposed,  as  by  some  interpreters,  to 
include  Gentile  along  with  Jewish  "  rudiments  "  already 
in  ver.  3.  His  readers  could  not  have  suspected  th.'s. 
The  "So  we  also"  and  the  "  held  in  bondage  "  of  this 
verse  carry  them  back  to  ch.  iii,  23.  By  calling 
the  Mosaic  ceremonies  "rudiments  of  the  world"'  he 
gives  Jewish  susceptibilities  just  such  a  shock  as  pre- 
pares for  the  declaration  of  ver.  9,  which  puts  them 
on  a  level  with  heathen  rites. 

The  difference   between   Judaism    and    Christianity', 
historically  unfolded    in    ch.  iii.,    is    here    restated    in 
graphic  summary.     We  see,   first,  the  heir  of  God  in 
his  minority  ;  and  again,  the  same  heir  in  possession  of 
his  estate. 

I.  One  can  fancy  the  Jew  replying  to  Paul's  previous 
argument  in  some  such  style  as  this.  "You  pour 
contempt,"  he  would  say,  "on  the  religion  of  your 
fathers.     You  make  them  out  to  have  been  no  better 


244  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATJANS, 

than  slaves.  Abraham's  inheritance,  you  pretend, 
under  the  Mosaic  dispensation  lay  dormant,  and  is 
revived  in  order  to  be  taken  from  his  children  and 
conferred  on  aliens."  No,  Paul  would  answer  :  I  admit 
that  the  saints  of  Israel  were  sons  of  God  ;  I  glory  in 
the  fact — "  who  are  Israelites,  whose  is  the  adoption  of 
sons  and  the  glory  and  the  covenants  and  the  law- 
giving and  the  promises,  whose  are  the  fathers " 
(Rom.  ix.  4,  5)-  Si^it  tiiey  ivere  sons  in  their  minority. 
**  And  I  say  that  as  long  as  the  heir  is  (legally)  an 
infant,  he  differs  in  nothing  from  a  slave,  though  (by 
title)  lord  of  all." 

The  man  of  the  Old  Covenant  was  a  child  of  God 
in  posse,  not  in  esse,  in  right  but  not  in  fact.  The 
"  infant "  is  his  father's  trueborn  son.  In  time  he  will 
be  full  owner.  Meanwhile  he  is  as  subject  as  any 
slave  on  the  estate.  There  is  nothing  he  can  command 
for  his  own.  He  is  treated  and  provided  for  as  a 
bondman  might  be  ;  put  ''under  stewards"  who  manage 
his  property,  ''  and  guardians  "  in  charge  of  his  person, 
"until  the  day  fore-appointed  of  the  father."  This 
situation  does  not  exclude,  it  implies  fatherly  affection 
and  care  on  the  one  side,  and  heirship  on  the  other. 
But  it  forbids  the  recognition  of  the  heir,  his  investment 
with  filial  rights.  It  precludes  the  access  to  the  father 
and  acquaintance  with  him,  which  the  boy  will  gain 
in  after  years.  He  sees  him  at  a  distance  and  through 
others,  under  the  aspect  of  authority  rather  than  of 
love.  In  this  position  he  does  not  yet  possess  the 
spirit  of  a  son.  Such  was  in  truth  the  condition  of 
Hebrew  saints — heirs  of  God,   but  knowing  it  not. 

This  illustration  raises  in  ver.  2  an  interesting  legal 
question,  touching  the  latitude  given  by  Roman  or 
other  current  law  to   the   father  in   dealing   with   his 


IV.  1-7.]  THE  HEIR'S   COMIXG   OF  ACE.  J45 


heirs.  Paul's  language  is  good  evidence  for  the 
existence  of  the  power  he  refers  to.  In  Roman  and  in 
Jewish  law  the  date  of  civil  majority  was  fixed.  Local 
usage  may  have  been  more  elastic.  But  the  case 
supposed,  we  observe,  is  not  that  of  a  dead  father,  into 
whose  place  the  son  steps  at  the  proper  age.  A  grant 
is  made  by  a  father  still  living,  who  keeps  his  son  in 
pupilage  till  he  sees  fit  to  put  him  in  possession  of  the 
promised  estate.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that 
paternal  discretion  was  limited  in  these  circumstances, 
any  more  than  it  is  in  English  law.  The  father  might 
fix  eighteen,  or  twenty-one,  or  thirty  years  as  the  age 
at  which  he  would  give  his  son  a  settlement,  just  as 
he  thought  best. 

This  analogy,  like  that  of  the  '' testament"  in  ch. 
iii.,  is  not  complete  at  all  points  ;  nor  could  any  human 
figure  of  these  Divine  things  be  made  so.  The  essential 
particulars  involved  in  it  are  first,  the  childisluiess  of  the 
infmit  heir;  secondly,  the  siibordinite  position  in  which 
lie  is  placed  for  the  time;  and  thirdly,  the  right  of  the 
Jather  to  determine  the  expiry  of  his  infancy. 

I.  *'When  we  were  children,"  says  the  Apostle. 
This  implies,  not  a  merely  formal  and  legal  bar,  but  an 
intrinsic  disqualification.  To  treat  the  child  as  a  man 
is  preposterous.  The  responsibilities  of  property  are 
be3^ond  his  strength  and  his  understanding.  Such 
powers  in  his  hands  could  only  be  instruments  of 
mischief,  to  himself  most  of  all.  In  the  Divine  order, 
calling  is  suited  to  capacity,  privilege  to  age.  The 
coming  of  Christ  was  timed  to  the  hour.  The  world 
of  the  Old  Testament,  at  its  wisest  and  highest,  was 
unripe  for  His  gospel.  The  revelation  made  to  Paul 
could  not  have  been  received  by  Moses,  or  David,  or 
Isaiah.     His  doctrine  was  only  possible  after  and  in 


246  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CALATIANS. 

consequence  of  theirs.  There  was  a  training  of  faculty, 
a  deepening  of  conscience,  a  patient  course  of  instruction 
and  chastening  to  be  carried  out,  before  the  heirs  of  the 
promise  were  fit  for  their  heritage.  Looking  back  to 
his  own  youthful  days,  the  Apostle  sees  in  them  a 
reflex  of  the  discipline  which  the  people  of  God  had 
required.  The  views  he  then  held  of  Divine  truth 
appear  to  him  low  and  childish,  in  comparison  with  the 
manly  freedom  of  spirit,  the  breadth  of  knowledge,  the 
fulness  of  joy  which  he  has  attained  as  a  son  of 
God   through  Christ. 

2.  But  what  is  meant  by  the  *' stewards  and  guardians" 
of  this  Jewish  period  of  infancy  ?  Ver.  3  tells  us  this, 
in  language,  however,  somewhat  obscure  :  ^'  We  were 
held  in  bondage  under  the  rudiments  (or  elements)  of 
the  world" — a  phrase  synonymous  with  the  foregoing 
^' under  law"  (ch.  iii.  23).  The  "guard"  and  **  tutor" 
of  the  previous  section  re-appears,  with  these  "  rudi- 
ments of  the  world "  in  his  hand.  They  form  the 
system  under  which  the  young  heir  was  schooled,  up 
to  the  time  of  his  majority.  They  belonged  to  "  the 
world  "  *  inasmuch  as  they  were,  in  comparison  with 
Christianity,  unspiritual  in  their  nature,  uninformed 
by  "  the  Spirit  of  God's  Son  "  (ver.  6).  The  language 
of  Heb.  ix.  i,  10  explains  this  phrase  :  "  The  first 
covenant  had  a  worldly  sanctuary,"  with  "ordinances 
of  flesh,  imposed  till  the  time  of  rectification."  The 
sensuous  factor  that  entered  into  the  Jewish  revelation 
formed  the  point  of  contact  with  Paganism  which  Paul 

*  Surely   the  "world   of  men,   not   the    cosmical   elements  ;    conip. 
Col.  ii.  8.  20  (where  rudiments  of  the  world  is  parallel  to  tradition  of 
men) ;  also  Gal.  vi.  14;  Heb.  ix.  i.    I  Cor.  iii.  i — 3  supplies  an  interesting 
parallel :  those  who  are  babes  in  Christ,  are  so  far   carnal  and  walk 
according  to  tnan,  animated  by  the  spirit  0/ this  uorld  {i  Cor.  ii.  12). 


iv.  I -7.  J  THE  HEIR'S  COM  IXC  OF  ACE.  247 

brings  into  view  in  the  next  paragraph.  Yet  rude 
and  earthly  as  the  Mosaic  system  was  in  some  of 
its  features,  it  was  Divinely  ordained  and  served  an 
essential  purpose  in  the  progress  of  revelation.  It 
shielded  the  Church's  infancy.  It  acted  the  part  of 
a  prudent  steward,  a  watchful  guardian.  The  heritage 
of  Abraham  came  into  possession  of  his  heirs  enriched 
by  their  long  minority.  Mosaism  therefore,  while 
spiritually  infeiior  to  the  Covenant  of  grace  in  Christ, 
has  rendered  invaluable  service  to  it  (comp.  ver.  24  : 
Chapter  XIV.,  p.  225). 

3.  The  will  of  the  Father  determined  the  period  of 
this  guardianship.  However  it  may  be  in  human  law, 
this  right  of  fore-ordination  resides  in  the  Divine 
Fatherhood.  In  His  unerring  foresight  He  fixed  the 
hour  when  His  sons  should  step  into  their  filial  place. 
All  such  "  times  and  seasons,"  Christ  declared,  "  the 
Father  hath  appointed  on  His  own  authority  "(Acts  i.  7). 
He  imposed  the  law  of  Moses,  and  annulled  it,  when 
He  would.  He  kept  the  Jewish  people,  for  their  own 
and  the  world's  benefit,  tied  to  the  legal  **  rudinients," 
held  in  the  leading-strings  of  Judaism.  It  was  His 
to  say  when  this  subjection  should  cease,  when  the 
Church  might  receive  the  Spirit  of  His  Son.  If  this 
decree  appeared  to  be  arbitrary,  if  it  was  strange  that 
the  Jewish  fathers — men  so  noble  in  faith  and  character 
— were  kept  in  bondage  and  fear,  we  must  remind 
ourselves  that  "so  it  seemed  good  in  the  Father's 
sight."  Hebrew  pride  found  this  hard  to  brook.  To 
think  that  God  had  denied  this  privilege  in  time  past 
to  His  chosen  people,  to  bestow  it  all  at  once  and  by 
mere  grace  on  Gentile  sinners,  making  them  at  "  the 
eleventh  hour"  equal  to  those  who  had  borne  for  so 
long  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day  I  that  the  children 


248  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATJANS, 

of  Abraham  had  been,  as  Paul  maintains,  for  centuries 
treated  as  slaveSy  and  now  these  heathen  aliens  are 
made  sons  just  as  much  as  they  !  But  this  was  God's 
plan;  and  it  must  be  right.  *' Who  art  thou,  O  man, 
that  repliest  against  God  ?  " 

II.  However,  the  nonage  of  the  Church  has  passed. 
God's  sons  are  now  to  be  owned  for  such.  //  is  Chrisfs 
mission  to  constitute  men  sons  of  God  (vv.  4,  5)- 

His  advent  was  the  turning-point  of  human  affairs, 
*'  the  fulness  of  time."  Paul's  glance  in  these  verses 
takes  in  a  vast  horizon.  He  views  Christ  in  His 
relation  both  to  God  and  to  humanity,  both  to  law  and 
redemption.  The  appearance  of  *'  the  Son  of  God, 
woman- born,"  completes  the  previous  course  of  time ; 
it  is  the  goal  of  antecedent  revelation,  unfolding  "  the 
mystery  kept  secret  through  times  eternal,"  but  now 
"made  known  to  all  the  nations"  (Rom.  xvi.  25,  26). 
Promise  and  Law  both  looked  forward  to  this  hour. 
Sin  had  been  "passed  by"  in  prospect  of  it,  receiv- 
ing hitherto  a  partial  and  provisional  forgiveness.  The 
aspirations  excited,  the  needs  created  by  earlier  religion 
demanded  their  satisfaction.  The  symbolism  of  type 
and  ceremony,  with  their  rude  picture-writing,  waited 
for  their  Interpreter.  The  prophetic  soul  of  "  the  wide 
world,  dreaming  of  things  to  come,"  watched  for  this  day. 
They  that  looked  for  Israel's  redemption,  the  Simeons 
and  Annas  of  the  time,  the  authentic  heirs  of  the 
promise,  knew  by  sure  tokens  that  it  was  near.  Their 
aged  eyes  in  the  sight  of  the  infant  Jesus  descried  its 
rising.  The  set  time  had  come,  to  which  all  times 
looked  since  Adam's  fall  and  the  first  promise.  At  the 
moment  when  Israel  seemed  farthest  from  help  and 
hope,  the  "  horn  of  salvation  was  raised  up  in  the  house 
of  David," — God  sent  forth  His  Son. 


iv.  1.7.]  THE  HEIR'S  COMING  OF  AGE.  249 

I.  The  sending  of  the  Son  brouglit  the  world's  servitude 
to  an  end.  "  Henceforth/'  said  Jesus,  "  I  call  you  not 
servants"  (John  xv.  15).  Till  now  " servant  of  God " 
had  been  the  highest  title  men  could  wear.  The 
heathen  were  enslaved  to  false  gods  (ver.  8).  And 
Israel,  knowing  the  true  God,  knew  Him  at  a  distance, 
serving  too  often  in  the  spirit  of  the  elder  son  of  the 
parable,  who  said,  "  Lo  these  many  years  do  I  slave 
for  thee  "  (Luke  xv.  29).  None  could  with  free  soul  lift 
his  eyes  to  heaven  and  say,  "  Abba,  Father."  Men  had 
great  thoughts  about  God,  high  speculations.  They 
had  learnt  imperishable  truths  concerning  His  unity, 
His  holiness,  His  majesty  as  Creator  and  Lawgiver. 
They  named  Him  the  "  Lord,"  the  "  Almighty,"  the  "  I 
AM."  But  His  Fatherhood  as  Christ  revealed  it,  they 
had  scarcely  guessed.  They  thought  of  Him  as  humble 
bondmen  of  a  revered  and  august  master,  as  sheep 
might  ot  a  good  shepherd.  The  idea  of  a  personal 
sonship  towards  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  was  incon- 
ceivable, till  Christ  brought  it  with  Him  into  the  world, 
till  God  sent  forth  His  Son. 

He  sent  Him  as  "  His  Son."  To  speak  of  Christ, 
with  the  mystical  Germans,  as  the  idea/  Urmensch — 
the  ideal  Son  of  man,  the  foretype  of  humanity — is  to 
express  a  great  truth.  Mankind  was  created  in  Christ, 
who  is  "the  image  of  God,  firstborn  of  all  creation." 
But  this  is  not  what  Paul  is  saying  here.  The  doubly 
compounded  Greek  verb  at  the  head  of  this  sentence 
(repeated  w'ith  like  emphasis  in  ver.  6)  signifies  "sent 
forth  from"  Himself:  He  came  in  the  character  of 
Cod's  Son,  bringing  His  sonship  with  Him.  He  was 
the  Son  of  God  before  He  was  sent  out.  He  did  not 
become  so  in  virtue  of  His  mission  to  mankind.  His 
relations  with  men,  in   Paul's  conception,  rested  upon 


250  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CALATIANS, 

His  pre-existing  relationship  to  God.  "The  Word" 
who  "  became  flesh,  was  with  God,  was  God  in  the 
beginning."  "He  called  God  His  own  Father,  making 
Himself  equal  with  God"  (John  v.  i8)  :  so  the  Jews 
had  gathered  from  His  own  declarations.  Paul  admitted 
the  claim  when  *'God  revealed  His  Son"  to  him,  and 
affirms  it  here  unequivocally. 

"  The  Son  of  God,"  arriving  "  in  the  fulness  of  time," 
enters  human  life.  Like  any  other  son  of  man,  He  is 
born  of  a  woman,  born  tinder  laiv.  Here  is  the  kenosis, 
the  emptying  of  Divinity,  of  which  the  Apostle  speaks 
in  Phil.  ii.  5 — 8.  The  phrase  "  born  of  woman,"  does 
not  refer  specifically  to  the  virgin-birth ;  this  term 
describes  human  origin  on  the  side  of  its  weakness  and 
dependence  "  (Job  xiv.  I  ;  Matt.  xi.  1 1).  Paul  is  think- 
ing not  of  the  difference,  but  of  the  identity  of  Christ's 
birth  and  our  own.  We  are  carried  back  to  Bethlehem. 
We  see  Jesus  a  babe  lying  in  His  mother's  arms — God's 
Son  a  human  infant,  drawing  His  life  from  a  weak 
woman  !  * 

Nor  is  "  born  under  law "  a  distinction  intended  to 
limit  the  previous  term,  as  though  it  meant  a  born  Jew, 
and  not  a  mere  woman's  son.  This  expression,  to  the 
mind  of  the  reader  of  ch.  iii.,  conveys  the  idea  of  sub- 
jection, of  humiliation  rather  than  eminence.  "Though 
He  was  (God's)  Son,"  Christ  must  needs  "  learn  His 
obedience"  (Heb.  v.  8).  The  Jewish  people  experi- 
enced above  all  others  the  power  of  the  law  to  chasten 
and  humble.  Their  law  was  to  them  more  sensibly, 
what  the  moral  law  is  in  varying  degree  to  the  world 
everywhere,  an  instrument  of  condemnation.  God's 
Son  was  now  put  under  its  power.     As  a  man  He  was 

*  Comp.  Rom.  i.  3,  4  ;  ix.  5  ;  2  Cor.  xiii,  4  ;  Eph.  iv.  9,  10 ;  Ph.  ii, 
6—8;  Col.  i,  15,  18  ;  ii.  9  ;  I  Tim.  iii.  16. 


iv.  1-7.]  THE    HEIR'S  COMING   OF  AGE,  2S< 

"under  law;"  as  a  Jew  He  came  under  its  most 
stringent  aj^plication.  He  declined  none  of  the  burdens 
of  His  birtli.  He  submitted  not  only  to  the  general 
moral  demands  of  the  Divine  law  for  men,  but  to  all 
the  duties  and  proprieties  incident  to  His  position  as 
a  man,  even  to  those  ritual  ordinances  which  His 
coming  was  to  abolish.  He  set  a  perfect  example  of 
loyalty.  "Thus  it  becometh  us,"  He  said,  "to  fulfil 
all  righteousness." 

The  Son  of  God  who  was  to  end  the  legal  bondage, 
was  sent  into  it  Himself.  He  wore  the  legal  yoke  that 
He  might  break  it.  He  took  "  the  form  of  a  servant," 
to  win  our  enfranchisement.  "God  sent  forth  His  Son, 
human,  law-bound — that  He  might  redeem  those  under 
law." 

Redemption  was  Christ's  errand.  We  have  learned 
already  how  "  He  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the 
law,*'  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross  (ch.  iii.  13).  This 
was  the  primary  object  of  His  mission  :  to  ransom  men 
from  the  guilt  of  past  sin.  Now  we  discern  its  further 
purpose — the  positive  and  constructive  side  of  the 
Divine  counsel.  Justification  is  the  preface  to  adoption. 
The  man  "  under  law "  is  not  only  cursed  by  his 
failure  to  keep  it ;  he  lives  in  a  servile  state,  debarred 
from  filial  rights.  Christ  "bought  us  out"  of  this 
condition.  While  the  expiation  rendered  in  His  death 
clears  off  the  entail  of  human  guilt.  His  incarnate  life 
and  spiritual  union  with  believing  men  sustain  that 
action,  making  the  redemption  complete  and  permanent. 
As  enemies,  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death 
of  His  Son;"  now  "reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved  by 
His  life"  (Rom.  v.  10).  Salvation  is  not  through  the 
death  of  Christ  alone.  The  Babe  of  Bethlehem,  the 
crowned  Lord  of  glory  is  our  Redeemer,  as  well  as  the 


252  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


Man  of  Calvary.     TJie   cross   is  indeed   the  centre  of 
His  redemption  ;  but  it  has  a  vast  circumference.     All 
that  Christ  is,  all  that  He  has  done  and  is  doing  as  the 
Incarnate  Son,  the  God-man,  helps  to  make  men  sons 
of   God.     The  purpose    of   His    mission    is    therefore 
stated  a  second  time  and  made  complete  in  the  words 
of   ver.  5    b\    "that  we  might    receive  the  adoption    of 
sonsy     The  sonship  carries  everything  else  with  it — 
''if  children,  then  heirs"  (ver.  7).     There  is  no  room 
for  any  supplementary  office  of  Jewish  ritual.     That 
is  left  behind  with  our  babyhood. 

2.  So  much  for  the  ground  of  sonship.     Its  proof 
lay  in  the  sending  forth  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Son. 

The  mission  of  the  Son  and  that  of  the  Spirit  are 
spoken  of  in  vv.  3 — 6  in  parallel  terms  :  "  God  sent 
forth  His  Son — sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son,"  the 
former  into  the  world  of  men,  the  latter  "  into "  their 
individual  "  hearts."  The  second  act  matches  the  first, 
and  crowns  it.  Pentecost  is  the  sequel  of  the  Incarna- 
tion (John  ii.  21  ;  I  Cor.  vi.  19,  20).  And  Pentecost 
is  repeated  in  the  heart  of  every  child  of  God.  The 
Apostle  addresses  himself  to  his  readers'  experience 
("  because  ye  are  sons ")  as  in  ch.  iii.  3 — 6,  and  on 
the  same  point.  They  had  "  received  the  Spirit : "  this 
marked  them  indubitably  as  heirs  of  Abraham  (ch.  iii. 
14) — and  what  is  more,  sons  of  God.  Had  not  the 
mystic  cry,  Abba^  Father^  sounded  in  their  hearts? 
The  filial  consciousness  was  born  within  them,  super- 
naturally  inspired.  When  they  believed  in  Christ, 
when  they  saw  in  Him  the  Son  of  God,  their  Redeemer, 
they  were  stirred  with  a  new,  ecstatic  impulse ;  a 
Divine  glow  of  love  and  joy  kindled  in  their  breasts  ; 
a  voice  not  their  own  spoke  to  their  spirit — their  soul 
leaped  forth  upon   their  lips,  crying  to  God,  "  Father, 


iv.  1-7]  THE  HEIR'S  COMING  OF  ACE.  253 

Father  1"     They  were  children  of  God,  and  knew   it. 
"The    Spirit     Himself    bore     them     witness"    (Roin. 

viii.    15). 

This  sentiment  was  not  due  to  their  own  reflection, 
not  the  mere  opening  of  a  buried  spring  of  feeling  in 
their  nature.  God  sent  it  into  their  hearts.  The  out- 
ward miracles  which  attended  the  first  bestowment  of 
this  gift,  showed  from  what  source  it  came  (ch.  iii.  5). 
Nor  did  Christ  personally  impart  the  assurance.  lie 
had  gone,  that  the  Paraclete  might  come.  Here  was 
another  Witness,  sent  by  a  second  mission  from  the 
Father  (John  xvi.  7).  His  advent  is  signalised  in 
clear  distinction  from  that  of  the  Son.  He  comes  in 
the  joint  name  of  Father  and  of  Son.  Jesus  called  Him 
•'  the  Spirit  of  the  Father; "  *  the  Apostle,  "  the  Spirit 
of  God's  Son." 

To  us  He  is  "  the  Spirit  of  adoption,"  replacing  the 
former  "spirit  of  bondage  unto  fear."  For  by  His 
indwelling  we  are  "joined  to  the  Lord  "  and  made  "one 
spirit "  with  Him,  so  that  Christ  lives  in  us  (ch.  ii.  20). 
And  since  Christ  is  above  all  thnigs  the  Son,  His  Spirit 
is  a  spirit  of  sonship ;  those  who  receive  Him  are  sons 
of  God,  Our  sonship  is  through  the  Holy  Spirit  derived 
from  His.  Till  Christ's  redemption  was  effected,  such 
adoption  was  in  the  nature  of  things  impossible.  This 
filial  cry  of  Gentile  hearts  attested  the  entrance  of  a 
Divine  life  into  the  world.  The  Spirit  of  God's  Son 
had  become  the  new  spirit  of  mankind. 

Abba,  the  Syrian  vocative  for  father,  was  a  word 
familiar  to  the  lips  of  Jesus.  The  instance  of  its  use 
recorded  in  Mark  xiv.  36,  was  but  one  of  many  such. 
No  one  had  hitherto  approached  God  as  He  did.     His 

•  Matt.  X.  20;  Luke  xi.  13  ;  John  xiv.  16  ;  Acts  i.  4,  5. 


254  l^i^E.   EPISTLE   TO    THE   GALATIANS. 


utterance  of  this  word,  expressing  the  attitude  of 
His  Hfe  of  pra_)'er  and  breathing  the  whole  spirit  of 
His  reHgion,  profoundly  affected  His  disciples.  So  that 
the  Abba  of  Jesus  became  a  watchword  of  His  Church, 
being  the  proper  name  of  the  God  and  Father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Gentile  believers  pronounced  it, 
conscious  that  in  doing  so  they  were  joined  in  spirit  to 
the  Lord  who  said,  "  My  Father,  and  your  Father  ! " 
Greek-speaking  Christians  supplemented  it  by  their 
own  equivalent,  as  we  by  the  English  Father.  This 
precious  vocable  is  carried  down  the  ages  and  round 
the  whole  world  in  the  mother-tongue  of  Jesus,  a 
memorial  of  the  hour  when  through  Him  men  learned 
to  call  God  Father. 

"  Because  ye  are  sons,  God  sent  forth  the  Spirit," 
with  this  cry.  The  witness  of  sonship  follows  on  the 
adoption,  and  seals  it.  The  child  is  born,  then  cries  ; 
the  cry  is  the  evidence  of  life.  But  this  is  not  the  first 
office  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  regenerate  soul.  Many 
a  silent  impulse  has  He  given,  frequent  and  long  con- 
tinued may  have  been  His  visitations,  before  His 
presence  reveals  itself  audibly.  From  the  first  the  new 
life  of  grace  is  implanted  by  His  influence.  "  That  which 
is  born  of  the  Spirit,  is  spirit."  "He  dwelleth  with  you, 
and  is  in  you,'^  '^  said  Jesus  to  His  disciples,  before  the 
Pentecostal  effusion.  Important  and  decisive  as  the 
witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  our  sonship  is,  we  must 
not  limit  His  operation  to  this  event.  Deeply  has  He 
wrought  already  on  the  soul  in  which  His  work  reaches 
this  issue ;  and  when  it  is  reached,  He  has  still  much 
to  bestow,  much  to  accomplish  in  us.  All  truth,  all 
holiness,  all  comfort  are  His;  and  into  these  He  leads 

*  John  xiv.    17;  ihe  present  [ecrlv)  is  the  preferable  reading.     See 

Westcotl  ad  he. 


iv,  1-7.]  TITE   HFJR'S   COMING   OF  AGE.  255 


the  children  of  God.     Living  by  the  Spirit,  in  Him  we 
proceed  to  wallv  (ch.  v.  25). 

The  interchange  of  person  in  the  subject  of  w. 
5 — 8  is  very  noticeable.  This  agitated  style  betrays 
high-strung  emotion.  Writing  first,  in  ver.  3,  in  the 
language  of  Jewish  experience,  in  ver.  6  Paul  turns  upon 
his  readers  and  claims  them  for  witnesses  to  the  same 
adoption  which  Jewish  believers  in  Christ  (ver.  5)  had 
received.  Instantly  he  falls  back  into  the  first  person  ; 
it  is  his  own  joyous  consciousness  that  breaks  forth  in 
the  filial  cry  of  ver.  6  h.  In  the  more  calm  concluding 
sentence  the  second  person  is  resumed  ;  and  now  in  the 
individualising  singular,  as  though  he  would  lay  hold  of 
his  readers  one  by  one,  and  bid  them  look  each  into 
his  own  heart  to  find  the  proof  of  sonship,  as  he  writes : 
"  So  that  thou  art  no  longer  a  slave,  but  a  son  ;  and  if 
a  son,  also  an  heir  through  God." 

An  heir  through  God— ih.\?>  is  the  true  reading,  and  is 
greatly  to  the  point.  It  carries  to  a  climax  the  emphatic 
repetition  of  *' God  "  observed  in  vv.  4  and  6.  "God 
sent  His  Son  "  into  the  world  ;  "  God  sent  "  in  turn 
"  His  Son's  Spirit  into  your  hearts."  God  then,  and 
no  other,  has  bestowed  your  inheritance.  It  is  yours 
by  His  fiat.  Who  dares  challenge  it  ?  *  Words  how 
suitable  to  reassure  Gentile  Christians,  browbeaten  by 
arrogant  Judaism  !  Our  reply  is  the  same  to  those 
who  at  this  day  deny  our  Christian  and  churchly 
standing,  because  we  reject  their  sacerdotal  claims. 

What  this  inheritance  includes  in  its  final  attainment, 
"  doth  not  yet  appear."  Enough  to  know  that  "  now 
are  we  children  of  God."  The  redemption  of  the  body, 
the  deliverance  of  nature  from   its  sentence  of  dissolu- 


*  Comp.  Rom.  viii.  31 — 35  ;  Acts  xi.  17. 


256  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

tion,  the  abolishment  of  death — these  are  amongst  its 
certainties.  Its  supreme  joy  lies  in  the  promise  of 
being  with  Christ,  to  witness  and  share  His  glory.* 
"  Heirs  of  God,  joint-heirs  with  Christ  " — a  destiny  like 
this  overwhelms  thought  and  makes  hope  a  rapture. 
God's  sons  may  be  content  to  wait  and  see  how  their 
heritage  will  turn  out.  Only  let  us  be  sure  that  we  are 
His  sons.  Doctrinal  orthodoxy,  ritual  observance, 
moral  propriety  do  not  impart,  and  do  not  supersede 
"  the  earnest  of  the  Spirit  in  our  hearts."  The  religion 
of  Jesus  the  Son  of  God  is  the  religion  of  the  filial 
consciousness. 

*  John   xii.  26;  xvii.  24;    Rev.  iii.  21  ;    Phil.  i.  23;   Col.  Hi.  4; 
I  Pet.  V.  I. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE    RETURiV    TO    BONDAGE. 

**  Howbeit  at  that  time,  not  knowing  God,  ye  were  in  bondage  to 
them  which  by  nature  are  no  gods  :  but  now  that  ye  have  come  to  know 
God,  or  rather  to  be  known  of  God,  how  turn  ye  back  again  to  the 
weak  and  beggarly  rudiments,  whereunto  ye  desire  to  be  in  bondage  over 
again?  Ye  observe  days,  and  months,  and  seasons,  and  years.  I  am 
afraid  of  you,  lest  by  any  means  I  have  bestowed  labour  upon  you  in 
vain"— Gal.  iv.  8— ii. 

**  OONS  of  God,  whom  He  made  His  heirs  in  Christ, 
Vs3  how  are  you  turning  back  to  legal  bondage!" 
Such  is  the  appeal  with  which  the  Apostle  follows  up 
his  argument.  "  Foolish  Galatians,"  we  seem  to  hear 
him  say  again,  "  who  has  bewitched  you  into  this  ?  " 
They  forget  the  call  of  the  Divine  grace ;  they  turn 
away  from  the  sight  of  Christ  crucified ;  nay,  they 
are  renouncing  their  adoption  into  the  family  of  God. 
Paul  knew  something  of  the  fickleness  of  human 
nature  ;  but  he  was  not  prepared  for  this.  How  can 
men  who  have  tasted  liberty  prefer  slavery,  or  full- 
grown  sons  desire  to  return  to  the  "  rudiments  "  of  child- 
hood ?  After  knowing  God  as  He  is  in  Christ,  is  it 
possible  that  these  Galatians  have  begun  to  dote  on 
ceremonial,  to  make  a  religion  of  "  times  and  seasons  ;  " 
that  they  are  becoming  devotees  of  Jewish  ritual  ? 
What  can  be  more  frivolous,  more  irrational  tban  this  ? 
On  such  people  Paul's  labours  seem  to  be  thrown  away. 


258  THE  EriSTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


''You  make  me  fear/'  he  says,  "  that  I  have  toiled  for 
you  in  vain." 

In  this  expostulation  tv^ro  principles  emerge  with 
especial  prominence. 

I.  First,  that  knowledge  of  God,  bringing  spiritual 
freedom^  lays  upon  us  higher  responsibilities.  "  Then 
indeed,"  he  says,  "not  knowing  God,  you  were  in 
bondage  to  false  gods.  Your  heathen  life  was  in  'a 
sense  excusable.  But  now  something  very  different 
is  expected  from  you,  since  you  have  come  to  know 
God." 

We  are  reminded  of  the  Apostle's  memorable  words 
spoken  at  Athens  :  "  The  times  of  ignorance  God  over- 
looked "  (Acts  xvii.  30).  ''  Ye  say,  We  see,"  said 
Jesus  ;  "your  sin  remaineth"  (John  ix.  41).  Increased 
light  brings  stricter  judgement.  If  this  was  true  of 
men  who  had  merely  heard  the  message  of  Christ,  how 
much  more  of  those  who  had  proved  its  saving  power. 
Ritualism  was  well  enough  for  Pagans,  or  even  for 
Jews  before  Christ's  coming  and  the  outpouring  of  His 
Spirit — but  for  Christians !  For  those  into  whose 
hearts  God  had  breathed  the  Spirit  of  His  Son,  who 
had  learned  to  "  worship  God  in  the  Spirit  and  to  have 
no  confidence  in  the  flesh " — for  Paul's  Galatians  to 
yield  to  the  legalist  "  persuasion  "  was  a  fatal  relapse. 
In  principle,  and  in  its  probable  issue,  this  course  was 
a  reverting  toward  their  old  heathenism. 

The  Apostle  again  recalls  them,  as  he  does  so  often 
his  children  in  Christ,  to  the  time  of  their  conversion. 
They  had  been,  he  reminds  them,  idolaters  ;  ignorant 
of  the  true  God,  they  were  "enslaved  to  things  that 
by  nature  are  no  gods."  Two  definitions  Paul  has 
given  of  idolatry  :  "  There  is  no  idol  in  the  world ; " 
and  again,  ''The  things  which   the  Gentiles  sacrifice, 


IV.  8-1 1.]  THE  RETURN  TO  BONDAGE.  259 

they  sacrifice  to  demons,  and  not  to  God"  (i  Cor.  viii. 
4;  X.  20).  Half  lies,  half  devilry:  such  was  the 
popular  heathenism  of  the  day.  "  Gods  many  and  lords 
many"  the  Galatian  Pagans  worsliipped — a  strange 
Pantheon.  There  were  their  old,  weird  Celtic  deities, 
before  whom  our  British  forefathers  trembled.  On 
this  ancestral  faith  had  been  superimposed  the  frantic 
rites  of  the  Phrygian  Mother,  Cybele,  with  her  muti- 
lated priests;  and  the  more  genial  and  humanistic 
cultus  of  the  Greek  Olympian  gods.  But  they  were 
gone,  the  whole  "damned  crew,"  as  Milton  calls 
them  ;  for  those  whose  eyes  had  seen  the  glory  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ,  their  spell  was  broken  ;  heaven 
was  swept  clear  and  earth  pure  of  their  foul  presence. 
The  old  gods  are  dead.  No  renaissance  of  humanism, 
no  witchcraft  of  poetry  can  re-animate  them.  To  us 
after  these  eighteen  centuries,  as  to  the  Galatian 
believers,  "  there  is  one  God  the  Father,  of  whom  are 
all  things,  and  we  for  Him  ;  and  one  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  through  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  through 
Him."  A  man  who  knew  the  Old  Testament,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  teaching  of  Christ,  could  never  sacrifice  to 
Jupiter  and  Mercurius  any  more,  nor  shout  "  Great  is 
Diana  of  the  Ephesians."  They  were  painted  idols, 
shams;  he  had  seen  through  them.  They  might 
frighten  children  in  the  dark  ;  but  the  sun  was  up. 
Christianity  destroyed  Paganism  as  light  kills  dark- 
ness. Paul  did  not  fear  that  his  readers  would  slide 
back  into  actual  heathenism.  That  was  intellectually 
impossible.  There  are  warnings  in  his  Epistles 
against  the  spirit  of  idolatry,  and  against  conformity 
with  its  customs ;  but  none  against  return  to  its 
beliefs. 

The  old  heathen  life  was  indeed  a  slavery,  full  of  fear 


26o  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

and  degradation.  The  religious  Pagan  could  never  be 
sure  that  he  had  propitiated  his  gods  sufficiently,  or 
given  to  all  their  due.  They  Vv'ere  jealous  and  revenge- 
ful, envious  of  human  prosperity,  capable  of  infinite 
wrongdoing.  In  the  worship  of  many  of  them  acts  were 
enjoined  revolting  to  the  conscience.  And  this  is  true 
of  Polytheism  all  over  the  world.  It  is  the  most 
shameful  bondage  ever  endured  by  the  soul  of  man. 

But  Paul's  readers  had  "  come  to  know  God."  They 
had  touched  the  great  Reality.  The  phantoms  had 
vanished ;  the  Living  One  stood  before  them.  His 
glory  shone  into  their  hearts  "in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ."  This,  whenever  it  takes  place,  is  for  any  man 
the  crisis  of  his  life — when  he  comes  to  knoiv  God,  when 
the  God-consciousness  is  born  in  him.  Like  the  dawn 
of  self-consciousness,  it  may  be  gradual.  There  are 
those,  the  happy  few,  who  were  "  born  again"  so  soon 
as  they  were  born  to  thought  and  choice  ;  they  cannot 
remember  a  time  when  they  did  not  love  God,  when  they 
were  not  sensible  of  being  "known  of  Him."  But  with 
others,  as  with  Paul,  the  revelation  is  made  at  an  instant, 
coming  like  a  lightning-flash  at  midnight.  But  unlike 
the  lightning  it  remained.  Let  the  manifestation  of 
God  come  how  or  when  it  may,  it  is  decisive.  The  man 
into  whose  soul  the  Almighty  has  spoken  His  /  AM, 
can  never  be  the  same  afterwards.  He  may  forget ;  he 
may  deny  it :  but  he  has  known  God ;  he  has  seen  the 
light  of  life.  If  he  returns  to  darkness,  his  darkness 
is  blacker  and  guiltier  than  before.  On  his  brow  there 
rests  in  all  its  sadness  "  Sorrow's  crown  of  sorrow, 
remembering  happier  things." 

Offences  venial,  excusable  hitherto,  from  this  time 
assume  a  graver  hue.  Things  that  in  a  lower  stage  of 
life  were  innocent,  and  even  possessed  religious  value, 


V.  8-11]  THE  RETURN  TO  BONDAGE.  261 

may  now  be  unlawful,  and  the  practice  of  them  a  declen- 
sion, the  first  step  in  apostasy.  What  is  delightful  in  a 
child,  becomes  folly  in  a  grown  man.  The  knowledge 
of  God  in  Christ  has  raised  us  in  the  things  of  the 
spirit  to  man's  estate,  and  it  requires  that  we  should 
"  put  away  childish  things,"  and  amongst  them  ritual 
display  and  sacerdotal  officiations,  Pagan,  Jewish,  or 
Romish.  These  things  form  no  part  of  the  knowledge 
of  God,  or  of  the  "  true  worship  of  the  Father." 

The  Jewish  "  rudiments "  were  designed  for  men 
who  had  not  known  God  as  Christ  declares  Him,  who 
had  never  seen  the  Saviour's  cross.  Jewish  saints 
could  not  worship  God  in  the  Spirit  of  adoption.  They 
remained  under  the  spirit  of  servitude  and  fear.  Their 
conceptions  were  so  far  "  weak  and  poor "  that  they 
supposed  the  Divine  favour  to  depend  on  such  matters 
as  the  "washing  of  cups  and  pots,"  and  the  precise 
number  of  feet  that  one  walked  on  the  Sabbath.  These 
ideas  belonged  to  a  childish  stage  of  the  religious 
life.  Pharisaism  had  developed  to  the  utmost  this 
lower  element  of  the  Mosaic  system,  at  the  expense  of 
everything  that  was  spiritual  in  it.  Men  who  had  been 
brought  up  in  Judaism  might  indeed,  after  conversion 
to  Christ,  retain  their  old  customs  as  matters  of  social 
usage  or  pious  habit,  without  regarding  them  as  vital 
to  religion.  With  Gentiles  it  was  otherwise.  Adopt- 
ing Jewish  rites  de  novo,  they  must  do  so  on  grounds 
of  distinct  religious  necessity.  For  this  very  reason  the 
duty  of  circumcision  was  pressed  upon  them.  It  was  a 
means,  they  were  told,  essential  to  their  spiritual  per- 
fection, to  the  attainment  of  full  Christian  privileges. 
But  to  know  God  by  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
Christ,  as  the  Galatians  had  done,  was  an  experience 
sufficient   to   show  that   this  "persuasion"   was  false. 


262  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


It  did  not  "come  of  Him  that  called  them."  It  intro- 
duced them  to  a  path  the  opposite  of  that  they  had 
entered  at  their  conversion,  a  way  that  led  downwards 
and  not  upwards,  from  the  spiritual  to  the  sensuous, 
from  the  salvation  of  faith  to  that  of  self-wrought  work 
of  law. 

"  Known  God,"  Paul  says, — "  or  rather  were  known 
of  God'*  He  hastens  to  correct  himself.  He  will  not 
let  an  expression  pass  that  seems  to  ascribe  anything 
simply  to  human  acquisition.  ^'Ye  have  not  chosen 
Me,"  said  Jesus ;  **  I  have  chosen  you."  So  the  Apostle 
John :  "  Not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  He  loved  us." 
This  is  true  through  the  entire  range  of  the  Christian 
life.  "  We  apprehend  that  for  which  we  were  appre- 
hended by  Christ  Jesus."  Our  love,  our  knowledge — 
what  are  they  but  the  sense  of  the  Divine  love  and 
knowledge  in  us  ?  Religion  is  a  bestowment,  not  an 
achievement.  It  is  "  God  working  in  us  to  will  and 
work  for  the  sake  of  His  good  pleasure."  In  this  light 
the  gospel  presented  itself  at  first  to  the  Galatians. 
The  preaching  of  the  Apostle,  the  vision  of  the  cross 
of  Christ,  made  them  sensible  of  God's  living  presence. 
They  felt  the  gaze  of  an  Infinite  purity  and  compassion, 
of  an  All- wise,  All-pitiful  Father,  fixed  upon  them.  He 
was  calling  them,  slaves  of  idolatry  and  sin,  "  into  the 
fellowship  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ."  The  illuminating 
glance  of  God  pierced  to  their  inmost  being.  In  that 
light  God  and  the  soul  met,  and  knew  each  other. 

And  now,  after  this  profound,  transforming  revelation, 
this  sublime  communion  with  God,  will  they  turn  back 
to  a  life  of  puerile  formalities,  of  slavish  dependence 
and  fear  ?  Is  the  strength  of  their  devotion  to  be 
spent,  its  fragrance  exhaled  in  the  drudgery  of  legal 
service  ?     Surely  they  know  God  better  than  to  think 


iv.8-n.]  THE  RETURN  TO  BONDAGE.  263 

that  He  requires  this.  And  He  who  knew  them,  as 
they  have  proved,  and  knows  what  was  right  and 
needful  for  them,  has  imposed  no  such  burden.  He 
granted  them  the  rich  gifts  of  His  grace — the  Divine 
sonship,  the  heavenly  heirship — on  terms  of  mere  faith 
in  Christ,  and  without  legal  stipulation  of  any  kind. 
Is  it  not  enough  that  God  knows  them,  and  counts 
them  for  His  children  ! 

So  knowing,  and  so  known,  let  them  be  content. 
Let  them  seek  only  to  keep  themselves  in  the  love  of 
God,  and  in  the  comfort  of  His  Spirit.  Raised  to  this 
high  level,  they  must  not  decline  to  a  lower.  Their 
heathen  "  rudiments  "  were  excusable  before ;  but  now 
even  Jewish  "  rudiments  "  are  things  to  be  left  behind. 

II.  It  further  appears  that  the  Apostle  saw  an  element 
existing  in  Judaistn  cojnnion  to  it  with  the  ethnic  religions. 
For  he  says  that  his  readers,  formerly  *' enslaved  to 
idols,"  are  "now  turning  back  to  the  weak  and  beggarly 
rudiments,  to  which  they  would  fain  be  in  bondage 
over  again." 

"  The  rudiments  "  of  ver.  9  cannot,  without  exegetical 
violence,  be  detached  from  "  the  rudiments  of  the 
world"  of  ver.  3.  And  these  latter  plainly  signify  the 
Judaic  rites  (see  Chapter  XVI.).  The  Judaistic  practices 
of  the  Galatians  were,  Paul  declares,  a  backsliding  toward 
their  old  idolatries.  We  can  only  escape  this  construc- 
tion of  the  passage  at  the  cost  of  making  the  Apostle's 
remonstrance  inconsequent  and  pointless.  The  argu- 
ment of  the  letter  hitherto  has  been  directed  with 
concentrated  purpose  against  Judaic  conformity.  To 
suppose  that  just  at  this  point,  in  making  its  application, 
he  turns  aside  without  notice  or  explanation  to  an 
entirely  ditTerent  matter,  is  to  stultify  his  reasoning. 
The  only  ground  for  referring  the  "days  and  seasons" 

1 


264  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

of  ver.  10  to  any  other  than  a  Jewish  origin,  lies  in 
the  apprehension  that  such  reference  disparages  the 
Christian  Sabbath. 

But  how,  we  ask,  was  it  possible  for  Paul  to  use 
language  which  identifies  the  revered  law  of  God  with 
rites  of  heathenism,  which  he  accounted  a  "  fellowship 
with  demons "  ?  Bishop  Lightfoot  has  answered  this 
question  in  words  we  cannot  do  better  than  quote : 
"  The  Apostle  regards  the  higher  element  in  heathen 
religion  as  corresponding,  however  imperfectly,  to  the 
lower  in  the  Mosaic  law.  For  we  may  consider  both 
the  one  and  the  other  as  made  up  of  two  component 
parts,  the  spiritual  and  the  ritualistic.  Now  viewed  in 
their  spiritual  aspect,  there  is  no  comparison  between 
the  one  and  the  other.  In  this  respect  the  heathen 
religions,  so  far  as  they  added  anything  of  their  own 
to  that  sense  of  dependence  on  God  which  is  innate 
in  man  and  which  they  could  not  entirely  crush,  were 
wholly  bad.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  Mosaic  law  the 
spiritual  element  was  most  truly  divine.  But  this  does 
not  enter  into  our  reckoning  here.  For  Christianity 
has  appropriated  all  that  was  spiritual  in  its  pre- 
decessor. .  .  .  The  ritualistic  element  alone  remains  to 
be  considered,  and  here  is  the  meeting-point  of  Judaism 
and  Heathenism.  In  Judaism  this  was  as  much  lower 
than  its  spiritual  element,  as  in  Heathenism  it  was 
higher.  Hence  the  two  systems  approach  within  such 
a  distance  that  they  can,  under  certain  limitations,  be 
classed  together.  They  have  at  least  so  much  in 
common  that  a  lapse  into  Judaism  can  be  regarded  as  a 
relapse  into  the  position  of  unconverted  Heathenism. 
Judaism  was  a  system  of  bondage  like  Heathenism. 
Heathenism  had  been  a  disciplinary  training  like 
Judaism  "  (Commentary  /;/  loc?). 


V.8-11.J  THE  RETURN  TO  BONDAGE,  26$ 


This  line  of  explanation  may  perhaps  be  carried  a 
step  further.  Judaism  was  rudimentary  throughout. 
A  religion  so  largely  ritualistic  could  not  but  be  spiri- 
tually and  morally  defective.  In  its  partial  apprehension 
of  the  Divine  attributes,  its  limitation  of  God's  grace  to 
a  single  people,  its  dim  perception  of  immortality,  there 
were  great  deficiencies  in  the  Jewish  creed.  Its  ethical 
code,  moreover,  was  faulty;  it  contained  '' precepts 
given  for  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts " — touching, 
for  example,  the  laws  of  marriage,  and  the  right  of 
revenge.  There  was  not  a  little  in  Judaism,  especially 
in  its  Pharisaic  form,  that  belonged  to  a  half-awakened 
conscience,  to  a  rude  and  sensuous  religious  faculty. 
Christ  came  to  "fulfil  the  law;"  but  in  that  fulfilment 
He  did  not  shrink  from  correcting  it.  He  emended 
the  letter  of  its  teaching,  that  its  true  spirit  might  be 
elicited.  For  an  enlightened  Christian  who  had  learned 
of  Jesus  the  "royal  law,  the  law  of  liberty,"  to  conform 
to  Judaism  was  unmistakably  to  "  turn  back."  More- 
over, it  was  just  the  weakest  and  least  spiritual  part  of 
the  system  of  Moses  that  the  legalist  teachers  inculcated 
on  Gentile  Christians ;  while  their  own  lives  fell  short 
of  its  moral  requirements  (ch.  vi.  12). 

Mosaism  had  been  in  the  days  of  its  inspiration  and 
creative  vigour  the  great  opponent  of  idolatry.  It  was 
the  Lord's  witness  throughout  long  centuries  of  heathen 
darkness  and  oppression,  and  by  its  testimony  has  ren- 
dered splendid  service  to  God  and  man.  But  from  the 
standpoint  of  Christianity  a  certain  degree  of  resemblance 
begins  to  be  seen  underlying  this  antagonism.  The 
faith  of  the  Israelitish  people  combatted  idolatry  with 
weapons  too  much  like  its  own.  A  worldly  and  servile 
element  remained  in  it.  To  one  who  has  advanced  in 
front,  positions  at  an  earlier  stage  of  his  progress  lying 


266  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

apart  and  paths  widely  divergent  now  assume  the 
same  general  direction.  To  resort  either  to  Jewish  or 
heathen  rites,  meant  to  turn  back  from  Christ.  It  was 
to  adopt  principles  of  religion  obsolete  and  unfit  for 
those  who  had  known  God  through  Him.  What  in  its 
time  and  for  its  purpose  was  excellent,  nay  indispens- 
able, in  doctrine  and  in  worship,  in  time  also  had 
"decayed  and  waxed  old."  To  tie  the  living  spirit  of 
Christianity  to  dead  forms  is  to  tie  it  to  corruption. 

*'Weak  and  beggarly  rudiments" — it  is  a  hard  sen- 
tence ;  and  yet  what  else  were  Jewish  ceremonies  and 
rules  of  diet,  in  comparison  with  "righteousness  and 
peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost "  ?  What  was  cir- 
cumcision, now  that  there  was  no  longer  "Jew  and 
Greek  ?  "  What  was  there  in  Saturday  more  than  in 
any  other  day  of  the  week,  if  it  ceased  to  be  a  sign 
between  the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  and  His  people? 
These  things  were,  as  Paul  saw  them,  the  cast-clothes 
of  religion.  For  Gentile  Christians  the  history  of  the 
Jewish  ordinances  had  much  instruction ;  but  their 
observance  was  no  whit  more  binding  than  that  of 
heathen  ceremonies.  Even  in  the  ancient  times  God 
valued  them  only  as  they  were  the  expression  of  a 
devout,  believing  spirit.  "Your  new  moons  and  your 
appointed  feasts,"  He  had  said  to  an  ungodly  genera- 
tion, "My  soul  hateth"  (Isa.  i.  14).  And  was  He 
likely  to  accept  them  now,  when  they  were  enforced  by 
ambition  and  party -spirit,  at  the  expense  of  His  Church's 
peace ;  when  their  observance  turned  men's  thoughts 
away  from  faith  in  His  Son,  and  in  the  power  of  His 
life-giving  Spirit  ?  There  is  nothing  too  severe,  too 
scornful  for  Paul  to  say  of  these  venerable  rites  of 
Israel,  now  that  they  stand  in  the  way  of  a  living 
faitli   and   trammel  the   freedom  of  the  sons  of  God. 


I'v.S-ii.]  THE  RETURN  TO  BONDAGE.  267 


He  tosses  them  aside  as  the  swaddling-bands  of  the 
Church's  infancy — childi.-h  fetters,  too  weak  to  hold  the 
limbs  of  grown  men.  "  He  brake  in  pieces  the  brazen 
serpent  that  Moses  had  made ;  for  the  children  of  Israel 
did  burn  incense  to  it ;  and  he  called  it  Nehushtan — a 
piece  of  brass"  (2  Kings  xviii.  4).  Brave  Hezekiah  ! 
Paul  does  the  same  with  the  whole  ceremonial  of  Moses. 
"  Beggarly  rudiments,"  he  says.  What  divine  refresh- 
ment there  is  in  a  blast  of  wholesome  scorn  !  It  was 
their  traditions,  their  ritr.al  that  the  Judaists  worshipped, 
not  the  Holy  One  of  Israel.  "  They  would  compass 
sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,"  and  then  "make 
him  twofold  more  the  child  of  hell  than  themselves." 
This  was  the  only  result  that  the  success  of  the  Judaistic 
agitation  could  have  achieved. 

In  thus  decrying  Jewish  ordinances,  the  Apostle  by 
implication  allows  a  certain  value  to  the  rites  of  Pagan- 
ism. The  Galatians  were  formerly  in  bondage  to 
"  them  that  are  no  gods."  Now,  he  says,  they  are 
turning  again  to  the  like  servitude  by  conforming  to 
Mosaic  legalism.  The}^  wish  to  come  again  under 
subjection  to  "  the  weak  and  poor  rudiments."  In 
Galatian  heathenism  Paul  appears  to  recognise  "  rudi- 
ments "  of  truth  and  a  certain  preparation  frr  Christi- 
anity. While  Judaic  rites  amounted  to  no  more  than 
rudiments  of  a  spiritual  faith,  there  were  influences 
at  work  in  Paganism  that  come  under  the  same 
category.  Paul  believed  that  "God  had  not  left  Him- 
self without  witness  to  any."  He  never  treated  heathen 
creeds  with  indiscriminate  contempt,  as  though  they 
were  utterly  corrupt  and  worthless.  Witness  his 
address  to  the  "  religious  "  Athenians,  and  to  the  wild 
people  of  Lycaonia  (Acts  xiv.  15 — 17;  xvii.  22 — 31). 
He  finds  his  text  in  "certain  of  your  own  (heathen) 


268  THE  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CALATIANS. 

poets."  He  appeals  to  the  sense  of  a  Divine  presence 
"  not  far  from  any  one  of  us  ; "  and  declares  that  though 
God  was  "unknown"  to  the  nations,  they  were  under 
His  guidance  and  were  "  feeling  after  Him."  To 
this  extent  Paul  admits  a  Preparatio  evangelica  in 
the  Gentile  world ;  he  would  have  been  prepared,  with 
Clement  of  Alexandria  and  Origen,  and  with  modern 
students  of  comparative  religion,  to  trace  in  the  poets 
and  wise  men  of  Greece,  in  the  lawgivers  of  Rome,  in 
the  mystics  of  the  East,  presentiments  of  Christianity, 
ideas  and  aspirations  that  pointed  to  it  as  their  fulfil- 
ment. The  human  race  was  not  left  in  total  darkness 
beyond  the  range  of  the  light  shining  on  Zion's  hill. 
The  old  Pagans,  "  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn,"  were 
not  altogether  God-forsaken.  They  too,  amid  darkness 
like  the  shadow  of  death,  had  "  glimpses  that  might 
make  them  less  forlorn."  And  so  have  the  heathen 
still.  We  must  not  suppose  either  that  revealed 
religion  was  perfect  from  the  beginning;  or  that  the 
natural  religions  were  altogether  without  fragments  and 
rudiments  of  saving  truth. 

"  Days  you  are  scrupulously  keeping,  and  months, 
and  seasons,  and  years," — the  weekly  sabbath,  the 
new  moon,  the  annual  festivals,  the  sacred  seventh 
year,  the  round  of  the  Jewish  Kalendar.  On  these 
matters  the  Galatians  had,  as  it  seems,  already  fallen 
in  with  the  directions  of  the  Jewish  teachers.  The 
word  by  which  the  Apostle  describes  their  practice, 
irapaTTjpetade,  denotes,  besides  the  fact,  the  manner 
and  spirit  of  the  observance — an  assiduous,  anxious 
attention,  such  as  the  spirit  of  legal  exaction  dictated. 
These  prescriptions  the  Galatians  would  the  more 
readily  adopt,  because  in  their  heathen  life  they  were 
accustomed  to  stated  celebrations.    The  Pagan  Kalendar 


iv.8-ii.]  THE  RETURN  TO  BONDAGE,  'i.dr^ 

was  crowded  with  days  sacred  to  gods  and  divine 
heroes.  This  resemblance  justified  Paul  all  the  more 
in  taxing  them  with  relapsing  towards  heathenism. 

The  Church  of  later  centuries,  both  in  its  Eastern 
and  Western  branch,  went  far  in  the  same  direction. 
It  made  the  keeping  of  holy  days  a  prominent  and 
obligatory  part  of  Christianity  ;  it  has  multiplied  them 
superstitiously  and  beyond  all  reason.  Amongst  the 
rest  it  incorporated  heathen  festivals,  too  little  changed 
by  their  consecration. 

Paul's  remonstrance  condemns  in  principle  the 
enforcement  of  sacred  seasons  as  things  essential  to 
salvation,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  Jewish  Sabbath 
was  the  bond  of  the  ancient  Covenant.  We  may  not 
place  even  the  Lord's  Day  upon  this  footing.  Far 
different  from  this  is  the  unforced  and  grateful  celebration 
of  the  First  Day  of  the  week,  which  sprang  up  in  the 
Apostolic  Church,  and  is  assumed  by  the  Apostles  Paul 
and  John  (i  Cor.  xvi.  2  ;  Rev.  i.  lo).  The  rule  of  the 
seventh  day's  rest  has  so  much  intrinsic  fitness,  and 
has  brought  with  it  so  many  benefits,  that  after  it  had 
been  enforced  by  strict  law  in  the  Jewish  Church  for 
so  long,  its  maintenance  could  now  be  left,  without 
express  re-enactment,  as  a  matter  of  freedom  to  the 
good  sense  and  right  feeling  of  Christian  believers, 
"  sons  of  the  resurrection."  Its  legislative  sanction 
rests  on  grounds  of  public  propriety  and  national  well- 
being,  which  need  not  to  be  asserted  here.  WI.erever 
the  "Lord  of  the  Sabbath"  rules.  His  Day  will  be 
gladly  kept  for  His  sake. 

The  Apostle  in  protecting  Gentile  liberties  is  no 
enemy  to  order  in  worship  and  outward  life.  No  one 
can  justly  quote  his  authority  in  opposition  to  such 
appointments  as  a  Christian  community  may  make,  for 


270  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 

reasons  of  expediency  and  decorum,  in  the  regulation 
of  its  affairs.  But  he  teaches  that  the  essence  of  Christ- 
ianity does  not  lie  in  things  of  this  kind,  not  in 
questions  of  meat  and  drink,  nor  of  time  and  place. 
To  put  these  details,  however  important  in  their  own 
order,  on  a  level  with  righteousness,  mercy,  and  faith, 
is  to  bring  a  snare  upon  the  conscience;  it  is  to 
introduce  once  more  into  the  Church  the  leaven  of 
justification  by  works  of  law. 

"  Weak  and  poor "  the  best  forms  of  piety  become, 
without  inward  knowledge  of  God.  Liturgies,  creeds 
and  confessions,  church  music  and  architecture, 
Sundays,  fasts,  festivals,  are  beautiful  things  when  they 
are  the  transcript  of  a  living  faith.  When  that  is  gone, 
their  charm,  their  spiritual  worth  is  gone.  They  no 
longer  belong  to  religion;  they  have  ceased  to  be  a 
bond  between  the  souls  of  men  and  God.  "  According 
to  our  faith  " — our  actual,  not  professional  or  "  con- 
fessional "  faith — *'  it  shall  be  done  unto  us  " :  such  is 
the  rule  of  Christ.  To  cling  to  formularies  which  have 
lost  their  meaning  and  to  which  the  Spirit  of  truth 
gives  no  present  witness,  is  a  demoralising  bondage. 

But  this  is  not  the  only,  nor  the  commonest  way 
in  which  the  sons  of  God  are  tempted  to  return  to 
bondage.  "  Whosoever  committeth  sin"  Christ  said, 
"  is  the  servant  of  sin."  And  the  Apostle  will  have  to 
warn  his  readers  that  by  their  abuse  of  Hberty,  by  their 
readiness  to  make  it  "an  occasion  to  the  flesh,"  they 
were  likely  to  forfeit  it.  "  They  that  are  Christ's  have 
crucified  the  flesh  "  (ch.  v.  24).  This  warning  must  be 
balanced  against  the  other.  Our  liberty  from  outward 
constraint  should  be  still  more  a  liberty  from  the 
dominion  of  self,  from  pride  and  desire  and  anger;  or 


iv.8-11.]  THE  RETURN-  TO  no.VP.lCE.  271 

it  is  not  the  liberty  of  God's  children.    Inward  servitude 
is  after  all  the  vilest  and  worst. 

**  You  make  me  afraid/'  at  last  the  Apostle  is  com- 
pelled to  say,  ''that  I  have  laboured  in  vain."  His 
enemies  had  caused  him  no  such  fear.  While  his 
children  in  the  faith  were  true  to  him,  he  was  afraid 
of  nothing.  "  Now  we  live/'  he  says  in  one  of  his 
Epistles,  "  if  ye  stand  fast  in  the  Lord  ! "  But  if  they 
should  fall  away  ?  He  trembles  for  his  own  work, 
for  these  wayward  children  who  had  already  caused 
him  so  many  pangs.  It  is  in  a  tone  of  the  deepest 
solicitude  that  he  continues  his  expostulation  in  the 
following  paragraph. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

PAUL'S    ENTREATY. 

*'  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  be  as  I  am,  for  I  am  as  ye  are.  Ye  did  me 
no  wrong  :  but  ye  know  that  because  of  an  infirmity  of  the  flesh  I 
preached  the  gospel  unto  you  the  first  time  :  and  that  which  was  a 
temptation  to  you  in  my  flesh  ye  despised  not,  nor  rejected  ;  but  ye 
received  me  as  an  angel  of  God,  even  as  Christ  Jesus.  Where  then  is 
that  gratulation  of  yourselves  ?  for  I  bear  you  witness,  that,  if  possible, 
ye  would  have  plucked  out  your  eyes  and  given  them  to  me.  So  then 
am  I  become  your  enemy,  because  I  tell  you  the  truth  ?  They  zeal- 
ously seek  you  in  no  good  way  ;  nay,  they  desire  to  shut  you  out,  that 
ye  may  seek  them.  But  it  is  good  to  be  zealously  sought  in  a  good 
matter  at  all  times,  and  not  only  when  I  am  present  with  you, — my 
children,  of  whom  I  am  again  in  travail  until  Christ  be  formed  in  you.* 
Yea,  I  could  wish  to  be  present  with  you  now,  and  to  change  my 
voice;  for  I  am  perplexed  about  you." — Gal.  iv.  12 — 20. 

THE  reproof  of  the  last  paragraph  ended  in  a  sigh. 
To  see  Christ's  freemen  relapsing  into  bondage, 
and  exchanging  their  Divine  birthright  for  childish  toys 
of  ceremonial,  what  can  be  more  saddening  and  disap- 
pointing than  this  ?  Their  own  experience  of  salva- 
tion, the  Apostle's  prayers  and  toils  on  their  behalf,  are, 
to  all  appearance,  wasted  on  these  foolish  Galatians. 
One  resource  is  still  left  him.  He  has  refuted  and 
anathematized  the  ^'  other  gospel."  He  has  done  what 
explanation  and  argument  can  do  to  set  himself  right 
with  his  readers,  and  to  destroy  the  web  of  sophistry 

*  For  tlie  rendering  of  this  clause,  see  the  exposition  which  follows. 


iv.  12-20.J  PAULS  LNTREATY.  rj^^ 


in  which  their  minds  had  been  entangled.  He  will 
now  try  to  win  them  by  a  gentler  persuasion.  If 
reason  and  authority  Tail,  "  for  love's  sake  he  will  rather 
beseech  "  them. 

He  had  reminded  them  of  their  former  idolatry ;  and 
this  calls  up  to  the  Apostle's  mind  the  circumstances 
of  his  first  ministry  in  Galatia.  He  sees  himself  once 
more  a  stranger  amongst  this  strange  people,  a  traveller 
fallen  sick  and  dependent  on  their  hospitality,  preaching 
a  gospel  with  nothing  to  recommend  it  in  the  appear- 
ance of  its  advocate,  and  which  the  sickness  delaying 
his  journey  had  compelled  him,  contrary  to  his  intention, 
to  proclaim  amongst  them.  Yet  with  what  leady  and 
generous  hospitality  they  had  received  the  infirm 
Apostle  !  Had  he  been  an  angel  from  heaven — nay, 
the  Lord  Jesus  Himself,  they  could  scarcely  have  shown 
him  more  attention  than  they  did.  His  physical  weak- 
ness, which  would  have  moved  the  contempt  of  others, 
called  forth  their  sympathies.  However  severely  he 
may  be  compelled  to  censure  them,  however  much  their 
feelings  toward  hirn  have  changed,  he  will  never  forget 
the  kindness  he  then  received.  Surely  they  cannot 
think  him  their  enemy,  or  allow  him  to  be  supplanted 
by  the  unworthy  rivals  who  are  seeking  their  regard. 
So  Paul  pleads  with  his  old  friends,  and  seeks  to  win 
for  his  arguments  a  way  to  their  hearts  through  the 
affection  for  himself  which  he  fain  hopes  is  still  linger- 
ing there. 

Hoc  prudcntis  est  pasfon's,  Calvin  aptly  says.  But 
there  is  more  in  this  entreaty  than  a  calculated  pru- 
dence. It  is  a  cry  of  the  heart.  Paul's  soul  is  in  the 
pangs  of  travail  (ver.  19).  We  have  seen  the  stern- 
ness of  his  face  relax  while  he  pursues  his  mighty 
argument.       As    he    surveys    the    woiking   of    God's 

18 


274  ^^/^  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

counsel  in  past  ages,  the  promise  given  to  Abraham 
for  all  nations,  the  intervening  legal  discipline,  the 
coming  of  Christ  in  the  fulness  of  time,  the  bursting 
of  the  ancient  bonds,  the  sending  forth  of  the  Spirit  of 
adoption — and  all  this  for  the  sake  of  these  Galatian 
Gentiles,  and  then  thinks  how  they  are  after  all 
declining  from  grace  and  renouncing  their  Divine 
inheritance,  the  Apostle's  heart  aches  with  grief. 
Foolish,  fickle  as  they  have  proved,  they  are  his 
children.  He  will  "  travail  over  them  in  birth  a  second 
time,"  if  *'  Christ  may  yet  be  formed  in  them."  Per- 
haps he  has  written  too  harshly.  He  half  repents  of 
his  severity.  *  Fain  would  he  •' change  his  voice."  If 
he  could  only  "be  with  them,"  and  see  them  face  to 
face,  haply  his  tears,  his  entreaties,  would  win  them 
back.  A  rush  of  tender  emotion  wells  up  in  Paul's 
soul.  All  his  relentings  are  stirred.  He  is  no  longer 
the  master  in  Christ  rebuking  unfaithful  disciples ;  he 
is  the  mother  weeping  over  her  misguided  sons. 

There  are  considerable  difficulties  in  the  exegesis 
of  this  passage.  We  note  them  in  succession  as  they 
arise: — (i)  In  ver.  12  we  prefer,  with  Meyer  and 
Lightfoot,  to  read,  ''  Be  as  I,  for  I  became  (rather  than 
ani)  as  you — brethren,  I  beseech  you."  The  verses 
preceding  and  following  both  suggest  the  past  tense 
in  the  ellipsis.  Paul's  memory  is  busy.  He  appeals 
to  the  "  auld  lang  syne."  He  reminds  the  Galatians  of 
what  he  "had  been  amongst  them  for  their  sake,"t 
how  he  then  behaved  in  regard  to  the  matters  in  dis- 
pute.    He  assumed  no  airs  of  Jewish  superiority.     He 


*  Comp.  2  Cor.  ii.  4  ;  vii.  8. 
f  Comp.  I  Thess.  i.  5  ;  ii.  7,  8. 


iv.  I2-20.]  PAULS  ENTREATY.  275 


did  not  separate  himself  from  his  Gentile  brethren 
by  any  practice  in  which  tliey  could  not  join.  He 
"became  as  they,"  placing  himself  by  their  side  on 
the  ground  of  a  common  Christian  faith.  He  asks  for 
reciprocity,  for  "a  recompense  in  like  kind"  (2  Cor. 
vi.  13).  Are  they  going  to  set  themselves  above  their 
Apostle,  to  take  their  stand  on  that  very  ground  of 
Mosaic  privilege  which  he  had  abandoned  for  their 
sake?  He  implores  them  not  to  do  this  thing.  The 
beseechment,  in  the  proper  order  of  the  words,  comes 
in  at  the  close  of  the  sentence,  with  a  pathetic  emphasis. 
He  makes  himself  a  suppliant.  "  I  beg  you,"  he  says, 
"  by  our  old  affection,  by  our  brotherhood  in  Christ, 
not  to  desert  me  thus." 

(2)  Suddenly  Paul  turns  to  another  point,  according 
to  his  W'Ont  in  this  emotional  mood :  "  There  is  nothing 
in  which  you  have  wronged  me."  Is  he  contradicting 
some  allegation  which  had  helped  to  estrange  the 
Galatians  ?  Had  some  one  been  saying  that  Pau 
was  affronted  by  their  conduct,  and  was  actuated  by 
personal  resentment  ?  In  that  case  we  should  have 
looked  for  a  specific  explanation  and  rebutment  of  the 
charge.  Rather  he  is  anticipating  the  thought  that  would 
naturally  arise  in  the  minds  of  his  readers  at  this  point. 
**Paul  is  asking  us/'  they  would  say,  "to  let  bygones 
be  bygones,  to  give  up  this  Judaistic  attachment  for  his 
sake,  and  to  meet  him  frankly  on  the  old  footing.  But 
supposing  we  try  to  do  so,  he  is  very  angry  with 
us,  as  this  letter  shows ;  he  thinks  we  have  treated 
him  badly ;  he  will  always  have  a  grudge  against  us. 
Things  can  never  be  again  as  they  were  between 
ourselves  and  him." 

Such  feelings  often  arise  upon  the  breach  of  an  old 
friendship,  to  prevent  the  offending  party  from  accept- 


276  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

ing  the  proffered  hand  of  reconcHiation.  Paul's  protest 
removes  this  hindrance.  He  repHes,  "  I  have  no  sense 
of  injury,  no  personal  grievance  against  you.  It  is 
impossible  I  should  cherish  ill-will  towards  jfo^^.  You 
know  how  handsomely  you  treated  me  when  I  first  came 
amongst  you.  Nothing  can  efface  from  my  heart  the 
recollection  of  that  time.  You  must  not  think  that  I 
hate  you,  because  I  tell  you  the  truth"  (ver.  i6). 

(3)  *' Because  of  an  infirmity  of  the  flesh"  (physical 
weakness),  is  the  truer  rendering  of  ver.  13  ;  and 
*'  your  temptation  in  my  flesh "  the  genuine  reading 
of  ver.  14,  restored  by  the  Revisers.  Sickness  had 
arrested  the  Apostle's  course  during  his  second  mis- 
sionary tour,  and  detained  him  in  the  Galatic  country. 
So  that  he  had  not  only  "  been  with "  the  Galatians 
"in  weakness,"  as  afterwards  when  during  the  same 
journey  he  preached  at  Corinth  (i  Cor.  ii.  3) ;  but 
actually  "  because  of  weakness."  His  infirmities  gave 
him  occasion  to  minister  there,  when  he  had  intended 
to  pass  them  by. 

Paul  had  no  thought  of  evangelizing  Galatia  ; 
another  goal  was  in  view.  It  was  patent  to  them — 
indeed  he  confessed  as  much  at  the  time — that  if  he 
had  been  able  to  proceed,  he  would  not  have  lingered 
in  their  country.  This  was  certainly  an  unpromising 
introduction.  And  the  Apostle's  state  of  health  made 
it  at  that  time  a  trial  for  any  one  to  listen  to  him. 
There  was  something  in  the  nature  of  his  malady  to 
excite  contempt,  even  loathing  for  his  person.  "  That 
which  tried  you  in  my  flesh,  ye  did  not  despise,  nor  spit 
out:"  such  is  Paul's  vivid  phrase.  How  few  men 
would  have  humility  enough  to  refer  to  a  circumstance 
of  this  kind  ;  or  could  do  so  without  loss  of  dignity. 
He  felt  that  the  condition  of  the  messenger  might  well 


iv.  I2-20.]  PAULS  ENTREATY.  277 

have  moved  this  Galatian    people   to   derision,    rather 
than  to  reverence  for  his  message. 

At  the  best  Paul's  appearance  and  address  were 
none  of  the  most  prepossessing.*  The  "ugly  little 
Jew"  M.  Renan  calls  him,  repeating  the  taunts  of  his 
Corinthian  contemners.  His  sickness  in  Galatia,  con- 
nc^cted,  it  would  appear,  with  some  constitutional  weak- 
ness, from  which  he  suffered  greatly  during  his  second 
and  third  missionary  tours,  assumed  a  humiliating  as 
well  as  a  painful  form.  Yet  this  "  thorn  in  the  flesh," 
a  bitter  trial  assuredly  to  himself,  t  had  proved  at  once  a 
trial  and  a  blessing  to  his  unintended  hearers  in  Galatia. 

(4)  So  far  from  taking  offence  at  Paul's  unfortunate 
condition,  they  welcomed  him  with  enthusiasm.  They 
*' blessed  themselves"  that  he  had  come  (ver.  15),  They 
said  one  to  another,  ''  How  fortunate  we  are  in  having 
this  good  man  amongst  us  !  What  a  happy  thing  for 
us  that  Paul's  sickness  obliged  him  to  stay  and  give  us 
the  opportunity  of  hearing  his  good  news  !  "  Such  was 
their  former  "gratulation."  The  regard  they  conceived 
for  the  sick  Apostle  was  unbounded.  "  For  I  bear  you 
witness,"  he  says,  "  that,  if  possible,  you  would  have 
dug  out  your  eyes  and  given  them  me  !  " 

Is  this  no  more  than  a  strong  hyperbole,  describing 
the  almost  extravagant  devotion  which  the  Galatians 
expressed  to  the  Apostle  ?  Or  are  we  to  read  the 
terms  more  literally  ?  So  it  has  been  sometimes  sup- 
posed. In  this  expression  some  critics  have  discovered 
a  clue  to  the  nature  of  Paul's  malady.  The  Galatians, 
as  they  read  the  sentence,  wished  they  could  have 
taken  out   their  own  eyes  and  given  them  to  Paul,  in 

*  I  Cor.  ii.  3  ;  2  Cor.  iv.  7  ;  x.  l,  10  ;  xi.  6. 

t  Comp  2  Cor.  xii.  7 — 10,  referring  apparently  to  the  first  outbreak 
of  this  mysterious  affliction. 


278  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

place  of  his  disabled  ones.  This  hypothesis,  it  is  argued, 
agrees  with  other  circumstances  of  the  case  and  gives 
shape  to  a  number  of  scattered  intimations  touching  the 
same  subject.  Infirmity  of  the  eyes  would  explain  the 
"large  characters"  of  Paul's  handwriting  (ch.  vi.  Il), 
and  his  habit  of  using  an  amanuensis.  It  would  account 
for  his  ignorance  of  the  person  of  the  High  Priest  at 
his  trial  in  Jerusalem  (Acts  xxiii.  2 — 5).  The  blindness 
that  struck  him  on  the  way  to  Damascus  may  have 
laid  the  foundation  of  a  chronic  affection  of  this  kind, 
afterwards  developed  and  aggravated  by  the  hardships 
of  his  missionary  life.  And  such  an  affliction  would 
correspond  to  what  is  said  respecting  the  "  thorn "  of 
2  Cor.  xii.  7,  and  the  "temptation"  of  this  passage. 
For  it  would  be  excessively  painful,  and  at  the  same 
time  disabling  and  disfiguring  in  its  effects. 

This  conjecture  has  much  to  recommend  it.  But  it 
finds  a  very  precarious  support  in  the  text.  Paul 
does  not  say,  "  You  would  have  plucked  out  your  own 
(A.V.)  eyes  and  given  them  me.y^  as  though  he  were 
thinking  of  an  exchange  of  eyes ;  but,  "  You  would 
have  plucked  out  your  eyes  and  given  them  me" — as 
much  as  to  say,  "  You  would  have  done  anything  in 
the  world  for  me  then, — even  taken  out  your  eyes  and 
given  them  to  me."  *  In  the  phrase  "  dug  out  "  we 
may  detect  a  touch  of  irony.  This  was  the  genuine 
Galatian  style.  The  Celtic  temperament  loves  to  launch 
itself  out  in  vehemencies  and  flourishes  of  this  sort, 
These  ardent  Gauls  had  been  perfectly  enraptured  with 
Paul.  They  lavished  upon  him  their  most  exuberant 
metaphors.  They  said  these  things  in  all  sincerity ; 
he  "  bears  them  record "  to  this.     However  cool  they 

•  Comp,  Matt,  xviii.  9. 


iv.  I2-20.]  PAULS  ENTKEATY.  279 

have  become  since,  they  were  gushing  enough  and  tc 
spare  in  their  aiTection  towards  him  then.  And  now 
have  they  "  so  quickly  "  turned  against  him  ?  Because 
he  crosses  their  new  fancies  and  tells  them  unwelcome 
truths,  they  rush  to  the  opposite  extreme  and  even 
think  him  their  enemy  I 

(5)  Suddenly  the  Apostle  turns  upon  his  opposers 
(ver.  17).  The  Judaizers  had  disturbed  his  happy  rela- 
tions with  his  Galatian  flock  ;  they  had  made  them  half 
believe  that  he  was  their  enemy.  The  Galatians  must 
choose  between  Paul  and  his  traducers.  Let  them 
scrutinise  the  motives  of  these  new  teachers.  Let  them 
call  to  mind  the  claims  of  their  father  in  Christ.  "  They 
are  courting  you,"  he  says, — "  these  present  suitors  for 
your  regard — dishonourably  ;  they  want  to  shut  you  out 
and  have  you  to  themselves,  that  you  may  pay  court  to 
them."  They  pretend  to  be  zealous  for  your  interests ; 
but  it  is  their  own  they  seek  (ch.  vi.  12). 

So  far  the  Apostle's  meaning  is  tolerably  clear.  But 
ver.  18  is  obscure.  It  may  be  construed  in  either  of 
two  ways,  as  Paul  or  the  Galatians  are  taken  for  the 
subject  glanced  at  in  the  verb  to  be  courted  in  its  first 
clause  :  '*  But  it  is  honourable  to  be  courted  always  in 
an  honourable  way,  and  not  only  when  I  am  present 
with  you."  Does  Paul  mean  that  he  has  no  objection 
to  the  Galatians  making  other  friends  in  his  absence  ? 
or,  that  he  thinks  they  ought  not  to  forget  him  in  his 
absence  ?  The  latter,  as  we  think.  The  Apostle  com- 
plains of  their  inconstancy  towards  himself.  This  is 
a  text  for  friends  and  lovers.  Where  attachment  is 
honourable,  it  should  be  lasting.  "  Set  me  as  a  seal 
upon  thine  heart,"  says  the  Bride  of  the  Song  of  Songs. 
With  the  Galatians  it  seemed  to  be,  "  Out  of  sight, 
out  of  mind."     They  allowed  Paul  to  be  pushed  out  by 


28o  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS, 

scheming  rivals.  He  was  far  away  ;  they  were  on  the 
spot.  He  told  them  the  truth  ;  the  Judaizers  flattered 
them.  So  their  foolish  heads  were  turned.  They 
were  positively  ^'bewitched"  by  these  new  admirers; 
and  preferred  their  sinister  and  designing  compliments 
to  Paul's  sterling  honour  and  proved  fidelity. 

The  connection  of  vv.  17,  18  turns  on  the  words 
honourable  and  court,*  each  of  which  is  thrice  repeated. 
There  is  a  kind  of  play  on  the  verb  ^ri\6ca.  In  ver.  18 
it  implies  a  true,  in  ver.  17  a  counterfeit  affection  (an 
affectation).  Paul  might  have  said,  "  It  is  good  one 
should  be  loved,  follozved  with  affection,  always,"  but  for 
the  sake  of  the  verbal  antithesis.  In  ver.  17  he  taxes 
his  opponents  with  unworthily  courting  the  favour  of 
the  Galatians;  in  ver.  18  he  intimates  his  grief  that  he 
himself  in  his  absence  is  no  longer  courted  by  them. 

(6)  In  the  next  verse  this  grief  of  wounded  affection, 
checked  at  first  by  a  certain  reserve,  breaks  out  uncon- 
trollably :  "  My  children,  for  whom  again  I  am  in  travail, 
till  Christ  be  formed  in  you ! "  f  This  outcry  is  a 
pathetic  continuance  of  his  expostulation.  He  cannot 
bear  the  thought  of  losing  these  children  of  his  heart. 
He  stretches  out  his  arms  to  them.  Tears  stream  from 
his  eyes.  He  has  been  speaking  in  measured,  almost 
playful  terms,  in  comparing  himself  with  his  supplanters. 
But  the  possibility  of  their  success,  the  thought  of  the 
mischief  going  on  in  Galatia  and  of  the  little  power 
he  has  to  prevent  it,  wrings  his  very  soul.  He  feels 
a  mother's  pangs  for  his  imperilled  children,  as  he 
writes  these  distressful  words. 

*  Z/7X6W,  to  have  zeal  towards  a  person  or  thing,  to  afiect  (A.V,  :  in 
its  older  English  sense  of  seeking,  paying  regard  to  any  one). 

f  Tht  full  stop  placed  in  the  Fv^lish  Version  at  the  end  of  ver.  18, 
on  this  view,  is  out  of  place. 


iv.  I2-20.]  PAULS  ENTREATY.  281 

There  is  nothing  gained  by  substituting  "  Httle  chil- 
dren "  (John's  phrase)  for  "  children,"  everywhere  else 
used  by  Paul,  and  attested  here  by  the  best  witnesses. 
The  sentiment  is  that  of  i  Thess.  ii.  7,  8  ;  I  Cor.  iv. 
14 — 16.  The  Apostle  is  not  thinking  of  tlie  littleness  or 
feebleness  of  the  Galatians,  but  simply  of  their  relation 
to  himself  His  sorrow  is  the  sorrow  of  bereavement 
''You  have  not  many  mothcrs^,^  he  seems  to  say:  "I 
have  travailed  over  you  in  birth  ;  and  now  a  second 
time  you  bring  on  me  a  mother's  pains,  which  I  must 
endure  until  Christ  is  formed  in  you  and  His  image 
is  renewed  in  your  souls." 

Paul  stands  before  us  as  an  injured  friend,  a  faithful 
minister  of  Christ  robbed  of  his  people's  love.  He  is 
wounded  in  his  tenderest  affections.  For  the  sake  of 
the  Gentile  Churches  he  had  given  up  everything  in 
life  that  he  prized  (ver.  12  ;  I  Cor.  ix.  2l);  he  had  ex- 
posed himself  to  the  contempt  and  hatred  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen — and  this  is  his  reward,  "  to  be  loved  the 
less,  the  more  abundantly  he  loves  ! "  (2  Cor.  xii.  15). 

But  if  he  is  grieved  at  this  defection,  he  is  equally 
perplexed.  He  cannot  tell  what  to  make  of  the  Gala- 
tions,  or  in  what  tone  to  address  them.  He  has  warned, 
denounced,  argued,  protested,  pleaded  as  a  mother  with 
her  children ;  still  he  doubts  whether  he  will  prevail. 
If  he  could  only  see  them  and  meet  them  as  in  former 
days,  laying  aside  the  distance,  the  sternness  of  authority 
which  he  has  been  forced  to  assume,  he  might  yet 
reach  their  hearts.  At  least  he  Wbuld  know  how  matters 
really  stand,  and  in  what  language  he  ought  to  speak 
So  his  entreaty  ends  :  "  I  wish  I  could  only  be  present 
with  you  now,  and  speak  in  some  different  voice.  For 
I  am  at  a  loss  to  know  how  to  deal  with  you." 


282  THE  EPISTLE   TO    THE   GALATIANS. 

This  picture  of  estrangement  and  reproach  tells  its 
own  tale,  when  its  lines  have  once  been  clearly  marked. 
We  may  dwell,  however,  a  little  longer  on  some  of  the 
lessons  which  it  teaches  : — 

I.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  evident  that  strong  emotions 
and  warm  affections  are  no  guarantee  for  the  permanence 
of  religious  life. 

The  Galatians  resembled  the  *'  stony  ground  "  hearers 
of  our  Lord's  parable, — ^*  such  as  hear  the  word,  and 
immediately  with  joy  receive  it ;  but  they  have  no  root 
in  themselves  ;  they  believe  for  a  time."  It  was  not 
"persecution"  indeed  that  "offended"  them;  but 
flattery  proved  equally  effectual.  They  were  of  the 
same  fervid  temper  as  Peter  on  the  night  of  the  Passion, 
when  he  said,  "  Though  I  should  die  with  Thee,  yet 
will  I  not  deny  Thee  in  anywise," — within  a  few  hours 
thrice  denying  his  Master,  with  "  oaths  and  curses." 
They  lacked  seriousness  and  depth.  They  had  fine 
susceptibilities  and  a  large  fund  of  enthusiasm  ;  they 
were  full  of  eloquent  protestations ;  and  under  excite- 
ment were  capable  of  great  efforts  and  sacrifices.  But 
there  was  a  flaw  in  their  nature.  They  were  creatures 
of  impulse — soon  hot,  soon  cold.  One  cannot  help 
liking  such  people — but  as  for  trusting  them,  that  is 
a  different  matter. 

Nothing  could  be  more  delightful  or  promising  than 
the  appearance  these  Churches  presented  in  the  early 
days  of  their  conversion.  They  heard  the  Apostle's 
message  with  rapt  attention ;  they  felt  its  Divine 
power,  so  strangely  contrasting  with  his  physical 
feebleness.  They  were  amazingly  wrought  upon.  The 
new  life  in  Christ  kindled  all  the  fervour  of  their 
passionate  nature.  How  they  triumphed  in  Christ  •' 
How  they  blessed  the  day  when  the  gospel  visited  their 


Iv.  12-20.]  PAUL'S  EN  J  KE  A  TV.  283 


land  !  They  alir.ost  worshipped  the  Apostle.  They 
could  not  do  enough  for  him.  Their  hearts  bled  for 
his  sufferings.  Where  are  all  these  transports  now  ? 
Paul  is  far  away.  Other  teachers  have  come,  with 
"  another  gospel."  And  the  cross  is  already  forgotten  ! 
They  are  contemplating  circumcision  ;  they  are  busy 
studying  the  Jewish  ritual,  making  arrangements  for 
feast-days  and  "functions",  eagerly  discussing  points 
of  ceremony.  Their  minds  are  poisoned  with  mistrust  of 
their  own  Apostle,  whose  heart  is  ready  to  break  over 
their  folly  and  frivolity.  All  this  for  the  want  of  a  little 
reflection,  for  want  of  the  steadiness  of  purpose  without 
which  the  most  genial  disposition  and  the  most  ardent 
emotions  inevitably  run  to  waste.  Their  faith  had  been 
too  much  a  matter  of  feeling,  too  little  of  principle. 

II.  Further,  we  observe  how  prone  are  those  who 
have  put  themselves  in  the  wrong  to  fix  the  blame  on 
others. 

The  Apostle  was  compelled  in  fidelity  to  truth  to 
say  hard  things  to  his  Galatian  disciples.  He  had 
previously,  on  his  last  visit,  given  them  a  solemn 
warning  on  account  of  their  Judaic  proclivities  (ch.  i.  9). 
In  this  Epistle  he  censures  them  roundly.  He  wonders 
at  them  ;  he  calls  them  "senseless  Galatians"  ;  he  tells 
them  they  are  within  a  step  of  being  cut  off  from 
Christ  (ch.  v.  4).  And  now  they  cry  out,  "  Paul  is  our 
enemy.  If  he  cared  for  us,  how  could  he  write  so 
cruelly  !  We  were  excessively  fond  of  him  once,  we 
could  not  do  too  much  for  him  ;  but  that  is  all  over 
now.  If  we  had  inflicted  on  him  some  great  injury, 
he  could  scarcely  treat  us  more  roughly."  Thoughtless 
and  excitable  people  couimonly  reason  in  this  way. 
Peri-onalities  with  them  take  the  place  of  argument 
and  principle.     The  severity  of  a  holy  zeal  for  truth  is 


.84  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


a  thing  they  can  never  understand.  If  you  disagree 
with  them  and  oppose  them,  they  put  it  down  to  some 
petty  animosity.  They  credit  you  with  a  private  grudge 
against  them  ;  and  straightway  enroll  you  in  the  number 
of  their  enemies,  though  you  may  be  in  reality  their 
best  friend.  Flatter  them,  humour  their  vanity,  and  you 
have  them  at  your  bidding.  Such  men  it  is  the  hardest 
thing  in  the  world  honestly  to  serve.  They  will  always 
prefer  "  the  kisses  of  an  enemy  "  to  the  faithful  "  wounds 
of  a  friend." 

III.  Men  of  the  Galatian  type  are  the  natural  prey 
of  self-seeking  agitators.  However  sound  the  principles 
in  which  they  were  trained,  however  true  the  friendships 
they  have  enjoyed,  they  must  have  change.  The 
accustomed  palls  upon  them.  Giddy  Athenians,  they 
love  nothing  so  much  as  "to  hear  and  tell  some  new 
thing."  They  ostracize  Aristides,  simply  because  they 
are  ''tired  of  hearing  him  always  called  the  Just."  To 
hear  "the  same  things,"  however  "safe"  it  may  be, 
even  from  an  Apostle's  lips  is  to  them  intolerably 
"  grievous."  They  never  think  earnestly  and  patiently 
enough  to  find  the  deeper  springs,  the  fresh  delight 
and  satisfaction  lying  hidden  in  the  great  unchanging 
truths.  These  are  they  who  are  "  carried  about  with 
divers  and  strange  doctrines,"  who  run  after  the  newest 
thing  in  ritualistic  art,  or  sensational  evangelism,  or 
well-spiced  heterodoxy.  Truth  and  plain  dealing, 
apostolic  holiness  and  godly  sincerity,  are  outmatched 
in  dealing  with  them  by  the  craft  of  worldly  wisdom. 
A  little  judicious  flatter}^,  something  to  please  the  eye 
and  catch  the  fancy — and  they  are  persuaded  to  believe 
almost  anything,  or  to  deny  what  they  have  most 
earnestly   believed. 

What  had  the  Legahsts  to  offer  compared  with  the 


iv.  I2-20.]  PAULS  ENTREATY.  285 

gifts  bestowed  on  these  Churches  through  Paul?  Wliat 
was  there  that  could  make  them  rivals  to  him  in 
character  or  spiritual  power  ?  And  yet  the  Galatians 
flock  round  the  Judaist  teachers,  and  accept  without 
inquiry  their  slanders  and  perversions  of  the  gospel ; 
while  the  Apostle,  their  true  friend  and  father,  too  true 
to  spare  their  faults,  stands  suspected,  almost  deserted. 
He  must  forsooth  implore  them  to  come  down  from  the 
heights  of  their  would-be  legal  superiority,  and  to  meet 
him  on  the  common  ground  of  grace  and  saving  faith. 
The  sheep  will  not  hear  their  shepherd's  voice ;  they 
follow  strangers,  though  they  be  thieves  and  hirelings. 
''  O  foolish  Galatians  I  " 

Whether  the  Apostle's  entreaty  prevailed  to  recall 
them  or  did  not,  we  cannot  tell.  From  the  silence  with 
which  these  Churches  are  passed  over  in  the  Acts  of  tlie 
Apostles,  and  the  little  that  is  heard  of  them  afterwards, 
an  unfavourable  inference  appears  probable.  The 
Judaistic  leaven,  it  is  to  be  feared,  went  far  to  leaven 
the  whole  lump.  Paul's  apprehensions  were  only  too 
well-grounded.  And  these  hopeful  converts  who  had 
once  "run  well,"  were  fatally  "hindered"  and  fell  far 
behind  in  the  Christian  race.  Such,  in  all  likelihood, 
was  the  result  of  the  departure  from  the  truth  of  the 
gospel  into  which  the  Galatians  allowed  themselves  to 
be  drawn. 

Whatever  was  the  sequel  to  this  story,  Paul's  protest 
remains  to  witness  to  the  sincerity  and  tenderness  cf 
the  great  Apostle's  soul,  and  to  the  disastrous  issues 
of  the  levity  of  character  which  distinguished  his 
Galatian  disciples. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  STORY  OF  HA  GAR. 

"  Tell  me,  ye  that  desire  to  be  under  the  law,  do  ye  not  hear  the  law  ? 
For  it  is  written,  that  Abraham  had  two  sons,  one  by  the  handmaid, 
and  one  by  the  freewoman.  Howbeit  the  son  by  the  handmaid  is  born 
after  the  flesh  ;  but  the  son  by  the  freewoman  is  born  through  promise. 
Which  things  contain  an  allegory  :  for  these  zvotnen  are  two  covenants  ; 
one  from  mount  Sinai,  bearing  children  unto  bondage,  which  is  Hagar, 
For  Sinai  is  a  mountain  in  Arabia,  and  answereth  to  the  Jerusalem 
that  now  is  :  for  she  is  in  bondage  with  her  children.  But  the  Jerusalem 
that  is  above  is  free,  which  is  our  mother.     For  it  is  written, 

Rejoice,  thou  barren  that  bearest  not ; 
Break  forth  and  cry,  thou  that  travailest  not : 
For  more  are  the  children  of  the  desolate  than  of  her  which 
hath  the  husband. 

Now  we,  brethren,  as  Isaac  was,  are  children  of  promise.  But  as 
then  he  that  was  born  after  the  flesh  persecuted  him  that  zvas  born  after 
the  Spirit,  even  so  it  is  now.  Howbeit  what  saith  the  scripture?  Cast 
out  the  handmaid  and  her  son  ;  for  the  son  of  the  handmaid  shall  not 
inherit  with  the  son  of  the  freewoman.  Wherefore,  brethren,  we  are 
not  children  of  a  handmaid,  but  of  the  freewoman.  For  freedom  did 
Christ  set  us  free  :  stand  fast  therefore,  and  be  not  entangled  again  in 
a  yoke  of  bondage." — Gal.  iv.  21 — v.  I. 

THE  Apostle  wished  that  he  could  "change  his 
voice  "  (ver.  20).  Indeed  he  has  changed  it  more 
than  once.  "Any  one  who  looks  closely  may  see  that 
there  is  much  change  and  alteration  of  feeling  in  what 
the    Apostle    has    previously    written "    (Theodorus). 


iv.2i-v.  I.]  THE  STORY  OF  II AGAR.  287 


Now  he  will  try  another  tone  ;  he  proceeds  in  fact  to 
address  his  readers  in  a  style  which  we  find  nowhere 
else  in  his  Epistles.  He  will  tell  his  ^'  children "  a 
story  !  Perhaps  he  may  thus  succeed  better  than  by 
graver  argument.  Their  quick  fancy  will  readily  appre- 
hend the  bearing  of  the  illustration ;  it  may  bring  home 
to  them  the  force  of  his  doctrinal  contention,  and  the 
peril  of  their  own  position,  as  he  fears  they  have  not 
seen  them  yet.  And  so,  after  the  pathetic  appeal  of  the 
last  paragraph,  and  before  he  delivers  his  decisive, 
official  protest  to  the  Galatians  against  their  circum- 
:ision,  he  interjects  this  "  allegory  "  of  the  two  sons  of 
Abraham. 

Paul  cites  the  history  of  the  sons  of  Abraham.  No 
other  example  would  have  served  his  purpose.  The 
controversy  between  himself  and  the  Judaizers  turned 
on  the  question,  Who  are  the  true  heirs  of  Abraham  ? 
(ch.  iii.  7,  16,  29).  He  made  faith  in  Christ,  they  cir- 
cumcision and  law-keeping,  the  ground  of  sonship.  So 
the  inheritance  was  claimed  in  a  double  sense.  But 
now,  if  it  should  appear  that  this  antithesis  existed  in 
principle  in  the  bosom  of  the  patriarchal  family,  if  we 
should  find  that  there  was  an  elder  son  of  Abraham's 
flesh  opposed  to  the  child  of  promise,  how  powerfully 
will  this  analogy  sustain  the  Apostle's  position. 
Judaism  will  then  be  seen  to  be  playing  over  again  the 
part  of  Ishmael ;  and  "the  Jerusalem  that  now  is  "  takes 
the  place  of  Hagar,  the  slave-mother.  The  moral 
situation  created  by  the  Judaic  controversy  had  been 
rehearsed  in  the  family  life  of  Abraham. 

"  Tell  me,"  the  Apostle  asks,  "  you  that  would  fain 
be  subject  to  the  law,  do  you  not  know  what  it  relates 
concerning  Abraham  ?  He  had  two  sons,  one  of  free, 
and  the  other  of  servile  birth.     Do  you  wish  to  belong 

1 


288  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

to  the  line  of  Ishmael,  or  Isaac?"  In  this  way  Paul 
resumes  the  thread  of  his  discourse  dropped  in  ver.  7. 
Faith,  he  had  told  his  readers,  had  made  them  sons  of 
God.  They  were,  in  Christ,  of  Abraham's  spiritual 
seed,  heirs  of  his  promise.  God  had  sent  His  Son  to 
redeem  them,  and  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  to  attest  their 
adoption.  But  they  were  not  content.  They  were 
ambitious  of  Jewish  privileges.  The  Legalists  per- 
suaded them  that  they  must  be  circumcised  and  conform 
to  Moses,  in  order  to  be  Abraham's  children  in  full 
title.  "Very  well,"  the  Apostle  says,  '^  you  may  be- 
come Abraham's  sons  in  this  fashion.  Only  you  must 
observe  that  Abraham  had  two  sons.  And  the  Law 
will  make  you  his  sons  by  Hagar,  whose  home  is  Sinai 
— not  Israelites,  but  Isluuaelitcs  !  " 

Paul's  Galatian  allegory  has  greatly  exercised  the 
minds  of  his  critics.  The  word  is  one  of  ill  repute  in 
exegesis.  Allegory  was  the  instrument  of  Rabbinical 
and  Alexandrine  Scripturists,  an  infallible  device  for 
extracting  the  predetermined  sense  from  the  letter  of 
the  sacred  text.  The  "  spiritualising  "  of  Christian  in- 
terpreters has  been  carried,  in  many  instances,  to  equal 
excess  of  riot.  For  the  honest  meaning  of  the  word  of 
God  anything  and  everything  has  been  substituted  that 
lawless  fancy  and  verbal  ingenuity  could  read  into  it. 
The  most  arbitrary  and  grotesque  distortions  of  the 
facts  of  Scripture  have  passed  current  under  cover  of 
the  clause,  "which  things  are  an  allegory."  But  Paul's 
allegory,  and  that  of  Philo  and  the  Allegorical  school, 
are  very  different  things,  as  widely  removed  as  the 
"words  of  truth  and  soberness"  from  the  intoxications 
of  a  mystical  idealism. 

With  Paul  the  spiritual  sense  of  Scripture  is  based 
on  the  historical,  is  in  fact  the  moral  content  and  import 


iv.2l-v.  I.]  THE  STORY  OF  HAGAR  289 


thereof;  for  he  sees  in  history  a  continuous  manifesta- 
tion of  God's  will.  With  the  Allcgorists  the  spiritual 
sense,  arrived  at  by  a  priori  means,  replaces  the  histori- 
cal, destroyed  to  make  room  for  it.  The  Apostle  points 
out  in  the  story  of  Hagar  a  spiritual  intent,  such  as 
exists  in  every  scene  of  human  life  if  we  had  eyes  to 
see  it,  something  other  than  the  literal  relation  of  the 
facts,  but  nowise  alien  from  it.  Here  lies  the  difference 
between  legitimate  and  illegitimate  allegory.  The 
utmost  freedom  may  be  given  to  this  employment  of 
the  imagination,  so  long  as  it  is  true  to  the  moral  of 
the  narrative  which  it  applies.  In  principle  the  Pauline 
allegory  does  not  differ  from  the  type.  In  the  type 
the  correspondence  of  the  sign  and  thing  signified 
centres  in  a  single  figure  or  event ;  in  such  an  allegory 
as  this  it  is  extended  to  a  group  of  figures  and  a  series 
of  events.  But  the  force  of  the  application  depends  on 
the  actuality  of  the  original  story,  which  in  the  illicit 
allegory  is  matter  of  indifference. 

"Which  things  are  allegorized" — so  the  Apostle 
literally  writes  in  ver.  24 — made  Diattcrs  of  allegory. 
The  phrase  intimates,  as  Bishop  Lightfoot  suggests, 
that  the  Hagarene  episode  in  Genesis  (ch.  xvi.,  xxi. 
I — 21)  was  commonly  interpreted  in  a  figurative  way. 
The  Galatians  had  heard  from  their  Jewish  teachers 
specimens  of  this  popular  mode  of  exposition.  Paul 
will  employ  it  too  ;  and  will  give  his  own  reading  of  the 
famous  story  of  Ishmael  and  Isaac.  Philo  of  Alexan- 
dria, the  greatest  allegorist  of  the  day,  has  expounded 
the  same  history.  These  eminent  interpreters  both 
make  Sarah  the  mother  of  the  spiritual,  Hagar  of  the 
worldly  offspring ;  both  point  out  how  the  barren  is 
exalted  over  the  fruitful  wife.  So  far,  we  may  imagine, 
Paul  is  moving  on  the  accepted  lines  of  Jewish  exegesis. 

10 


290  THh   EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

But  Philo  knows  nothing  of  the  correspondence  between 
Isaac  and  Christ,  which  h'es  at  the  back  of  the  Apostle's 
allegory.  And  there  is  this  vital  difference  of  method 
between  the  two  divines,  that  whereas  Paul's  com- 
parison is  the  illustration  of  a  doctrine  proved  on  other 
grounds — the  painting  which  decorates  the  house 
already  built  (Luther) — with  the  Alexandrine  idealist  it 
forms  the  substance  and  staple  of  his  teaching. 

Under  this  allegorical  dress  the  Apostle  expounds 
once  more  his  doctrine,  already  inculcated,  of  the  differ- 
ence between  the  Legal  and  Christian  state.  The 
former  constitutes,  as  he  now  puts  the  matter,  a  bastard 
sonship  like  that  of  Ishmael,  conferring  only  an 
external  and  provisional  tenure  in  the  Abrahamic  in- 
heritance. It  is  contrasted  with  the  spiritual  sonship 
of  the  true  Israel  in  the  following  respects  : — It  is  a 
state  of  nature  as  opposed  to  grace  ;  of  bondage  as 
opposed  to  freedom ;  and  further,  it  is  temporary  and 
soon  to  be  ended  by  the  Divine  decree. 

I.  "  He  who  is  of  the  maid-servant  is  after  the  flesh  ; 
but  he  that  is  of  the  free-woman  is  through  promise. 
.  .  .  Just  as  then  he  that  was  after  the  flesh  persecuted 
him  that  was  after  the  Spirit,  so  now "  (vv.  23,  29). 
The  Apostle  sees  in  the  different  parentage  of  Abraham's 
sons  the  ground  of  a  radical  divergence  of  character. 
One  was  the  child  of  nature,  the  other  was  the  son  of 
a  spiritual  faith. 

Ishmael  w^as  in  truth  the  fruit  of  unbelief;  his  birth 
was  due  to  a  natural  but  impatient  misreading  of  the 
promise.  The  patriarch's  union  with  Hagar  was  ill- 
assorted  and  ill-advised.  It  brought  its  natural  penalty 
by  introducing  an  alien  element  into  his  family  life. 
The  low-bred  insolence  which  the  serving-woman,  in 
the  prospect  of   becoming    a  mother,   showed    toward 


V.2I-V.  I.]  THE  STORY  Of  II AC  A  R.  2yi 

the  mistress  to  whom  she  owed  her  preferment,  gave 
a  foretaste  of  the  unhappy  consequences.  The  promise 
of  posterity  made  to  Abraham  with  a  childless  wife, 
was  expressly  designed  to  try  his  faith ;  and  he  had 
allowed  it  to  be  overborne  by  the  reasonings  of  nature. 
It  was  no  wonder  that  the  son  of  the  Egyptian  slave, 
born  under  such  conditions,  proved  to  be  of  a  lower 
type,  and  had  to  be  finally  excluded  from  the  house. 

In  Ishmael's  relation  to  his  father  there  was  nothing 
but  the  ordinary  play  of  human  motives.  "The  son 
of  the  handmaid  was  born  after  the  flesh."  He  was 
a  natural  son.  But  Ishmael  was  not  on  that  account 
cut  off  from  the  Divine  mercies.  Nor  did  his  father's 
prayer,  "  O  that  Ishmael  might  live  before  Thee " 
(Gen.  xvii.  1 8),  remain  unanswered.  A  great  career 
was  reserved  by  Divine  Providence  for  his  race.  The 
Arabs,  the  fiery  sons  of  the  desert,  through  him  claim 
descent  from  Abraham.  They  have  carved  their 
name  deeply  upon  the  history  and  the  faith  of  the 
world.  But  sensuousness  and  lawlessness  are  every- 
where the  stamp  of  the  Ishmaelite.  With  high  gifts  and 
some  generous  qualities,  such  as  attracted  to  his  eldest 
boy  the  love  of  Abraham,  their  fierce  animal  passion 
has  been  the  curse  of  the  sons  of  Hagar.  Mohamme- 
danism is  a  bastard  Judaism ;  it  is  the  religion  of 
Abraham  sensualised.  Ishmael  stands  furth  as  the 
type  of  the  carnal  man.  On  outward  grounds  of  flesh 
and  blood  he  seeks  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of 
God  ;  and  with  fleshly  weapons  passionately  fights  its 
battles. 

To  a  similar  position  Judaism,  in  the  Apostle's  view, 
had  now  reduced  itself.  And  to  this  footing  the  Gala- 
tian  Churches  would  be  brought  if  they  yielded  to  the 
Judaistic  solicitations.     To  be  circumcised  would  be  for 


292  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


them  to  be  born  again  after  the  flesh,  to  link  them- 
selves to  Abraham  in  the  unspiritual  fashion  of  Hagar's 
son.  Ishmael  was  the  first  to  be  circumcised  (Gen. 
xvii.  23 — 26).  It  was  to  renounce  salvation  by  faith 
and  the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  course 
could  only  have  one  result.  The  Judaic  ritualism  they 
were  adopting  would  bear  fruit  after  its  kind,  in  a 
worldly,  sensuous  life.  Like  Ishmael  they  would 
claim  kinship  with  the  Church  of  God  on  fleshly 
grounds ;  and  their  claim  must  prove  as  futile  as  did 
his. 

The  persecution  of  the  Church  by  Judaism  gave 
proof  of  the  Ishmaelite  spirit,  the  carnal  animus  by 
which  it  was  possessed.  A  religion  of  externalism 
naturally  becomes  repressive.  It  knows  not  "  the 
demonstration  of  the  Spirit";  it  has  "confidence  in 
the  flesh."  It  relies  on  outward  means  for  the  propa- 
gation of  its  faith ;  and  naturally  resorts  to  the  secular 
arm.  The  Inquisition  and  the  Auto-da-fe  are  a  not 
unfitting  accompaniment  of  the  gorgeous  ceremonial  of 
the  Mass.  Ritualism  and  priestly  autocracy  go  hand 
in  hand.  '*  So  now,"  says  Paul,  pointing  to  Ishmael's 
"persecution"  of  the  infant  Isaac,  hinted  at  in  Gen. 
xxi.  8 — 10. 

The  laughter  of  Hagar's  boy  at  Sarah's  weaning- 
feast  seems  but  a  slight  offence  to  be  visited  with  the 
punishment  of  expulsion  ;  and  the  incident  one  beneath 
the  dignity  of  theological  argument.  But  the  principle 
for  which  Paul  contends  is  there ;  and  it  is  the  more 
easily  apprehended  when  exhibited  on  this  homely 
scale.  The  family  is  the  germ  and  the  mirror  of 
society.  In  it  are  first  called  into  play  the  motives 
which  determine  the  course  of  history,  the  rise  and  fall 
of  empires  or  churches.     The  gravamen  of  the  charge 


iv.2i-v.  I.]  THE  STORY  OF  HAGAR.  29J 

against  Ishniacl  lies  in  the  last  word  of  Gen.  xxi.  9, 
rendered  in  the  Authorized  Version  mocking^  and  by 
the  Revisers  playing,  after  the  Septuagint  and  the 
Vulgate.  This  word  in  the  Hebrew  is  evidently  a  play 
on  the  name  Isaac,  i.e.,  laughter,  given  by  Sarah  to  her 
boy  with  genial  motherly  delight  (vv.  6,  7).  Ishmael, 
now  a  youth  of  fourteen,  takes  up  the  child's  name  and 
turns  it,  on  this  public  and  festive  occasion,  into 
ridicule.  Such  an  act  was  not  only  an  insult  to  the 
mistress  of  the  house  and  the  young  heir  at  a  most 
untimely  moment,  it  betrayed  a  jealousy  and  con- 
tempt on  the  part  of  Hagar's  son  towards  his  half- 
brother  which  gravely  compromised  Isaac's  future. 
"  The  wild,  ungovernable  and  pugnacious  character 
ascribed  to  his  descendants  began  to  display  itself  in 
Ishmael,  and  to  appear  in  language  of  provoking 
insolence  ;  offended  at  the  comparative  indifference 
with  which  he  was  treated,  he  indulged  in  mockery, 
especially  against  Isaac,  whose  very  name  furnished 
him  with  satirical  sneers"*  Ishmael's  jest  cost  him 
dear.  The  indignation  of  Sarah  was  reasonable  ;  and 
Abraham  was  compelled  to  recognise  in  her  demand 
the  voice  of  God  (vv.  10 — 12).  The  two  boys,  like 
Esau  and  Jacob  in  the  next  generation,  represented 
opposite  principles  and  ways  of  life,  w^hose  counter- 
working was  to  run  through  the  course  of  future 
history.  Their  incompatibility  was  already  mani- 
fest. 

The  Apostle's  comparison  must  have  been  mortifying 
in  the  extreme  to  the  Judaists.  They  are  told  in  plain 
terms  that  they  are  in  the  position  of  outcast  Ishn.ael; 
while  uncircumcised  Gentiles,  without  a  drop  of  Abra- 


•  Kalisch,  Commentary^  on  Genesis  xxi.  9. 


2r>4  THE  EnSTlE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


ham's  blood  in  their  veins,  have  received  the  promise 
forfeited  by  their  unbelief  Paul  could  not  have  put 
his  conclusion  in  a  form  more  unwelcome  to  Jewish 
pride.  But  without  this  radical  exposure  of  the  legal- 
ist position  it  was  impossible  for  him  adequately  to 
vindicate  his  gospel  and  defend  his  Gentile  children  in 
the  faith. 

II.  From  this  contrast  of  birth  '^  according  to  flesh  " 
and  '^  through  promise "  is  deduced  the  opposition 
between  the  slave-horn  and  free-horn  sons.  '^  For  these 
(the  slave-mother  and  the  free-woman)  are  two  cove- 
nants, one  indeed  bearing  children  unto  bondage — 
which  is  Hagar"  (ver.  24).  The  other  side  of  the 
antithesis  is  not  formally  expressed ;  it  is  obvious. 
Sarah  the  princess,  Abraham's  true  wife,  has  her 
counterpart  in  the  original  covenant  of  promise  re- 
newed in  Christ,  and  in  "  the  Jerusalem  above,  which 
is  our  mother"  (ver.  26).  Sarah  is  the  typical  mother,* 
as  Abraham  is  the  father  of  the  children  of  faith.  In 
the  sysioichia,  or  tabular  comparison,  which  the  Apostle 
draws  up  after  the  manner  of  the  schools,  Hagar  and 
the  Mosaic  covenant,  Sinai  and  the  Jerusalem  that  now  is 
stand  in  one  file  and  "answer  to"  each  other;  Sarah 
and  the  Ahrahamic  covenant^  Zion  and  the  heavenly 
Jerusalem  succeed  in  the  same  order,  opposite  to  them. 
"  Zion  "  is  wanting  in  the  second  file  ;  but  "  Sinai  and 
Zion"  form  a  standing  antithesis  (Heb.  xii.  18 — 22); 
the  second  is  implied  in  the  first.  It  was  to  Zion  that 
the  words  of  Isaiah  cited  in  ver.  27,  were  addressed. 

The  first  clause  of  ver.  25  is  best  understood  in  the 
shorter,  marginal  reading  of  the  R.  V.,  also  preferred 
by  Bishop  Lightfoot  (to  ^ap  Xiva  6po<;  iarlu  k.t.\.).     It 


*  Comp.  Heb.  xi.  11,  12  ;  i  Pet.  iii.  6. 


V.  2i-\M.]  THE  STORY  OF  II AGAR.  295 


is  a  parenthesis — '*  for  nioiuit  Sinai*  is  in  Arabia" — 
covenant  running  on  in  the  mind  from  ver.  24  as  the 
continued  subject  of  ver.  25  b  \  "and  it  answereth  to 
the  present  Jerusalem."  This  is  the  simplest  and  most 
consistent  construction  of  the  passage.  The  interjected 
geographical  reference  serves  to  support  the  identifica- 
tion of  the  Sinaitic  covenant  with  Hagar,  Arabia  being 
the  well-knovi^n  abode  of  the  Ilagarenes.  Paul  had 
met  them  in  his  wanderings  there.  Some  scholars 
have  attempted  to  establish  a  verbal  agreement  between 
the  name  of  the  slave-mother  and  that  locally  given  to 
the  Sinaitic  range  ;  but  this  explanation  is  precarious, 
and  after  all  unnecessary.  There  was  a  real  corre- 
spondence between  place  and  people  on  the  one 
hand,  as  between  place  and  covenant  on  the  other. 
Sinai  formed  a  visible  and  imposing  link  between  the 
race  of  Ishmael  and  the  Mosaic  law-giving.  That 
awful,  desolate  mountain,  whose  aspect,  as  we  can 
imagine,  had  vividly  impressed  itself  on  Paul's  memory 
(ch.  i.  17),  spoke  to  him  of  bondage  and  terror.  It 
was  a  true  symbol  of  the  working  of  the  law  of  Moses, 
exhibited  in  the  present  condition  of  Judaism.  And 
round  the  base  of  Sinai  Hagar's  wild  sons  had  found 
their  dwelling. 

Jerusalem  was  no  longer  the  mother  of  freemen. 
The  boast,  ''  we  are  Abraham's  sons  ;  we  were  never  in 
bondage  "  (John  viii.  33),  was  an  unconscious  irony. 
Her  sons  chafed  under  the  Roman  yoke.  They  were 
loaded  with  self-inflicted  legal  burdens.  Above  all, 
they  were,  notwithstanding  their  professed  law-keeping, 
enslaved  to  sin,  in  servitude   to   their  pride  and  evil 


*  Paul  writes  "the  ^//;a;  mountain  "  (ri  St^a  hpo%)  in  tacit  opposi- 
tion to  the  other,  familiar  Mount  Zion  (Hofmann  in  loc.).  In  llcb. 
xii.  22  the  same  inversion  appears,  wiih  the  same  significance. 


296  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

lusts.  The  spirit  of  the  nation  was  that  of  rebelHous, 
discontented  slaves.  They  were  Ishmaelite  sons  of 
Abraham,  with  none  of  the  nobleness,  the  reverence, 
the  calm  and  elevated  faith  of  their  father.  In  the 
Judaism  of  the  Apostle's  day  the  Sinaitic  dispensation, 
uncontrolled  by  the  higher  patriarchal  and  prophetic 
faith,  had  worked  out  its  natural  result.  It  ''  gendered 
to  bondage."  A  system  of  repression  and  routine,  it 
had  produced  men  punctual  in  tithes  of  mint  and  anise, 
but  without  justice,  mercy,  or  faith ;  vaunting  their 
liberty  while  they  were  "  servants  of  corruption." 
The  law  of  Moses  could  not  form  a  '^new  creature." 
It  left  the  Ishmael  of  nature  unchanged  at  heart,  a 
child  of  the  flesh,  with  whatever  robes  of  outward 
decorum  his  nakedness  was  covered.  The  Pharisee 
was  the  typical  product  of  law  apart  from  grace. 
Under  the  garb  of  a  freeman  he  carried  the  soul  of  a 
slave. 

But  ver.  26  sounds  the  note  of  deliverance:  "The 
Jerusalem  above  is  free ;  and  she  is  our  mother  ! " 
Paul  has  escaped  from  the  prison  of  Legalism,  from  the 
confines  of  Sinai ;  he  has  left  behind  the  perishing 
earthly  Jerusalem,  and  with  it  the  bitterness  and  gloom 
of  his  Pharisaic  days.  He  is  a  citizen  of  the  heavenly 
Zion,  breathing  the  air  of  a  Divine  freedom.  The 
yoke  is  broken  from  the  neck  of  the  Church  of  God  ; 
tlie  desolation  is  gone  from  her  heart.  There  come  to 
the  Apostle's  lips  the  words  of  the  great  prophet  of  the 
Exile,  depicting  the  deliverance  of  the  spiritual  Zion, 
despised  and  counted  barren,  but  now  to  be  the  mother 
of  a  numberless  offspring.  In  Isaiah's  song,  "  Rejoice, 
thou  barren  that  bearest  not "  (ch.  liv.),  the  laughter  of 
the  childless  Sarah  bursts  forth  again,  to  be  gloriously 
renewed  in  the  persecuted  Church  of  Jesus.     Robbed 


iv.  2 1- V.I.J  THE  STORY  OF  II AG  AH,  297 


of  all  outward  means,  mocked  and  thrust  out  as  she 
is  by  Israel  after  the  flesh,  her  rejection  is  a  release, 
an  emancipation.  Conscious  of  the  Spirit  of  sonship 
and  freedom,  looking  out  on  the  boundless  conquests 
lying  before  her  in  the  Gentile  world,  the  Church  of 
the  New  Covenant  glories  in  her  tribulations.  In  Paul 
is  fulfilled  the  joy  of  prophet  and  psalmist,  who  sang 
in  former  days  of  gloom  concerning  Israel's  enlarge- 
ment and  world-wide  victories.  No  legalist  could 
understand  words  like  these.  "The  veil"  was  upon 
his  heart  "  in  the  reading  of  the  Old  Testament."  But 
with  "the  Spirit  of  the  Lord"  comes  "liberty."  The 
prophetic  inspiration  has  returned.  The  voice  of  re- 
joicing is  heard  again  in  the  dwellings  of  Israel.  "  If 
the  Son  make  you  free,"  said  Jesus,  "  ye  shall  be  free 
indeed."     This  Epistle  proves  it. 

III.  "  And  the  bondman  abideth  not  in  the  house  for 
ever;  the  Son  abideth  for  ever"  (John  viii.  35).  This 
also  the  Lord  had  testified  :  the  Apostle  repeats  His 
warnmg  in  the  terms  of  this  allegory. 

Sooner  or  later  the  slave-boy  was  bound  to  go.  He 
has  no  proper  birthright,  no  permanent  footing  in  the 
house.  One  day  he  exceeds  his  licence,  he  makes 
himself  intolerable  ;  he  must  begone.  "  What  saith  the 
Scripture  ?  Cast  out  the  maidservant  and  her  son  ; 
for  the  son  of  the  maidservant  shall  not  inherit  with 
the  son  of  the  freewoman  "  (ver.  30).  Paul  has  pro- 
nounced the  doom  of  Judaism.  His  words  echo  those 
of  Christ :  "  Behold  your  house  is  left  unto  you  deso- 
late "  (Matt,  xxiii.  38);  they  are  taken  up  again  in 
the  language  of  Heb.  xiii.  13,  14,  uttered  on  the  eve 
of  the  fall  oi  Jerusalem  :  "Let  us  go  forth  unto  Jesus 
without  the  camp,  bearing  His  reproach.  We  have 
here  no  continuing  city,  but  we  seek  that  which   is  to 


298  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATTANS. 

come."  On  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  ichabod  was  plainly 
written.  Since  it  "  crucified  our  Lord "  it  was  no 
longer  the  Holy  City;  it  was  "spiritually  Sodom  and 
Egypt"  (Rev.  xi.  8), — Egypt,  the  country  of  Hagar. 
Condemning  Him,  the  Jewish  nation  parsed  sentence 
on  itself.  They  were  slaves  who  in  blind  rage  slew 
heir  Master  when  He  came  to  free  them. 

The  Israelitish  people  showed  more  than  Ishmael's 

jealousy  towards  the  infant  Church  of  the  Spirit.     No 

weapon   of  violence  or   calumny   was  too   base  to  be 

used  against  it.     The  cup  of  their  iniquity  was  filling 

fast.      They    were  ripening  for   the  judgement  which 

Christ  predicted  (i  Thess.  ii.  16).     Year  by  year  they 

became    more  hardened    against    spiritual   truth,  more 

malignant  towards  Christianity,  and  more  furious  and 

fanatical  in  their  hatred  towards  their  civil  rulers.     The 

cause  of  Judaism  was  hopelessly  lost.     In  Rom.  ix. — 

xi.,  written  shortly  after  this  Epistle,  Paul  assumes  this 

as  a  settled  thing,  which  he  has  to  account  for  and  to 

reconcile  with  Scripture.     In  the  demand  of  Sarah  for 

the  expulsion  of  her  rival,  complied  with  by  Abraham 

against  his  will,  the  Apostle  reads  the  secret  judgement 

of  the  Almighty  on  the  proud  city  which  he  himself  so 

ardently  loved,  but  which  had  crucified   his  Lord  and 

repented   not.     "  Cut   it   down,"   Jesus    cried ;    "  why 

cumbereth  it  the  ground  ?  "  (Luke  xiii.  7).     The  voice 

of  Scripture  speaks  again  :  "  Cast  her  out ;    she    and 

her  sons   are    slaves.     They   have  no    place    amongst 

the  sons  of  God."     Ishmael  was  in  the  way  of  Isaac's 

safety  and  prosperity.     And  the  Judaic  ascendency  was 

no    less    a    danger    to    the    Church.     The  blow  which 

shattered  Judaism,  at  once  cleared  the  ground  for  the 

outward    progress    of    the    gospel    and    arrested    the 

legalistic  reaction  which  hindered  its  internal  develop- 


iv.  2I-V.  I.]  THE  STORY  OF  II AGAR.  299 


nient.  The  two  systems  were  irreconcilable.  It  was 
Paul's  merit  to  have  first  apprehended  this  contradiction 
in  its  full  import.  The  time  had  come  to  apply  in  all  its 
rigour  Christ's  principle  of  combat,  "  I  le  that  is  not  with 
Me,  is  against  Me."  It  is  the  same  rule  of  exclusion 
which  Paul  announces  :  "  If  an}'  man  hath  not  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  His"  (Rom.  viii.  9).  Out  of  Christ 
is  no  salvation.  When  the  day  of  judgement  comes, 
whether  for  men  or  nations,  this  is  the  touchstone  : 
Have  we,  or  have  we  not  "  the  Spirit  of  God's  Son  ?" 
Is  our  character  that  of  sons  of  God,  or  slaves  of  sin  ? 
On  the  latter  falls  inevitably  the  sentence  of  expulsion, 
"  He  will  gather  out  of  His  kingdom  all  things  that 
offend,  and  them  that  do  iniquity"  (Matt.  xiii.  41). 

This  passage  signalises  the  definite  breach  of  Christ- 
anity  with  Judaism.  The  elder  Apostles  lingered  in 
the  porch  of  the  Temple  ;  the  primitive  Church  clung 
to  the  ancient  worship.  Paul  does  not  blame  them  for 
doing  so.  In  their  case  this  was  but  the  survival  of 
a  past  order,  in  principle  acknowledged  to  be  obsolete. 
But  the  Church  of  the  future,  the  spiritual  seed  of 
Abraham  gathered  out  of  all  nations,  had  no  part  in 
Legalism.  The  Apostle  bends  all  his  efforts  to  con- 
vince his  readers  of  this,  to  make  them  sensible  of 
the  impassable  gulf  lying  between  them  and  outworn 
Mosaism.  Again  he  repeats,  "  We  are  not  children 
of  a  maidservant,  but  of  her  that  is  free"(ver.  31). 
The  Church  of  Christ  can  no  more  hold  fellowship  with 
Judaism  than  could  Isaac  with  the  spiteful,  mocking 
Ishmael.  Paul  leads  the  Church  across  the  Rubicon. 
There  is  no  turning  back. 
T^  Ver.  I  of  ch.  v.  is  the  application  of  the  allegory.  It 
is  a  triumphant  assertion  of  liberty,  a  ringing  summons 
to  its  defence.     Its  separation  from  ch.  iv.  is  ill-judged, 


j 


oo  T//£  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


and  runs  counter  to  the  ancient  divisions  of  the 
Epistle.  ^'  Christ  set  us  free,"  Paul  declares  ;  ^'  and  it 
\w2is  for  freedom* — not  that  we  might  fall  under  a  new 
servitude.  Stand  fast  therefore  ;  do  not  let  your- 
selves be  made  bondmen  over  again."  Bondmen  the 
Galatians  had  been  before  (ch.  iv.  8),  bowing  down  to 
false  and  vile  gods.  Bondmen  they  will  be  again,  if 
they  are  beguiled  by  the  Legalists  to  accept  the  yoke 
of  circumcision,  if  they  take  *'  the  Jerusalem  that  now 
is"  for  their  mother.  They  have  tasted  the  joys  of 
freedom  ;  they  know  what  it  is  to  be  sons  of  God,  heirs 
of  His  kingdom  and  partakers  of  His  Spirit ;  why  do 
they  stoop  from  their  high  estate  ?  Why  should 
Christ's  freemen  put  a  yoke  upon  their  own  neck  ?  Let 
them  only  know  their  happiness  and  security  in  Christ, 
and  refuse  to  be  cheated  out  of  the  substance  of  their 
spiritual  blessings  b}^  the  illusive  shadows  which  the 
Judaists  offer  them.  Freedom  once  gained  is  a  prize 
never  to  be  lost.  No  care,  no  vigilance  in  its  preserva- 
tion can  be  too  great.  Such  liberty  inspires  courage 
and  good  hope  in  its  defence.  *' Stand  fast  therefore. 
Quit  yourselves  like  men." 

How    the    Galatians    responded    to    the    Apostle's 

*  The  reading  of  this  clause  is  doubtful.  The  ancient  witnesses 
disagree.  Dr.  Hort  suggests  that  the  Revised  reading — the  best  at- 
tested, but  scarcely  grammatical — may  be  due  to  a  primitive  corruption, 
TH  for  En  {iXevdepiq).  This  emendation  gives  an  excellent  and 
apposite  sense  :  /or  {unth  a  view  toi)  freedom  Christ  set  us  free.  The 
phrase  iir  iXevdepig,  is  found  in  ver.  13,  and  would  gain  additional 
force  there,  if  read  as  a  repetition  of  what  is  affirmed  here.  The  con- 
fusion of  letters  involved  is  a  natural  one  ;  and  once  made  at  an  early 
time  in  some  standard  copy,  it  would  account  for  the  extraordinary 
confusion  of  reading  into  which  the  verse  has  fallen.  If  conjectural 
emendation  may  be  admitted  anywhere  in  the  N.  T.,  it  is  legitimate  in 
this  instance. 


iv.  21-v.  I.]  THE  STORY  OF  JIAGAR.  301 


challenge,  we  do  not  know.  But  it  has  found  an  echo 
in  many  a  heart  since.  The  Lutheran  Reformation 
was  an  answer  to  it ;  so  was  the  Scottish  Covenant. 
The  spirit  of  Christian  liberty  is  eternal.  Jerusalem  or 
Rome  may  strive  to  imprison  it.  They  might  as  well 
seek  to  bind  the  winds  of  heaven.  Its  home  is  with 
God.  Its  seat  is  the  throne  of  Christ.  It  lives  by 
the  breath  of  His  Spirit.  The  earthly  powers  mock 
at  it,  and  drive  it  into  the  wilderness.  They  do  but 
assure  their  own  ruin.  It  leaves  the  house  of  the 
oppressor  desolate.  Whosoever  he  be — Judaist  or 
Papist,  priest,  or  king,  or  demagogue— that  makes 
himself  lord  of  God's  heritage  and  would  despoil  His 
children  of  the  liberties  of  faith,  let  him  beware  lest 
of  him  also  it  be  spoken,  "  Cast  out  the  bondwoman 
and  her  son." 


CHAPTER    XX. 

SHALL    THE   GALATIANS  BE   CIRCUMCISED 

**  Behold,  I  Paul  say  unto  you,  that,  if  ye  receive  circumcision,  Christ 
v\ill  profit  you  nothing.  Yea,  I  testify  again  to  every  man  that  receiveth 
circumcision,  that  he  is  a  debtor  to  do  the  whole  law.  Ye  are  severed 
from  Christ,  ye  who  would  be  justified  by  the  law  ;  ye  are  fallen  away 
from  grace.  For  we  through  the  Spirit  by  faith  wait  for  the  hope 
of  righteousness.  For  in  Christ  Jesus  neither  circumcision  availeth 
anything,  nor  uncircumcision ;  but  faith  working  through  love." — 
Gal.  v.  2 — 6. 

SHALL  the  Galatians  be  circumcised,  or  shall  they 
not  ?  This  is  the  decisive  question.  The  denun- 
ciation with  which  Paul  begins  his  letter,  the  narrative 
which  follows,  the  profou  and  rgumentation,  the  tender 
entreaty  of  the  last  two  chapters,  all  converge  toward 
this  crucial  point.  So  far  the  Galatian  Churches  had 
been  only  dallying  w^ith  Judaism.  They  have  been 
tempted  to  the  verge  of  apostasy;  but  they  are  not 
yet  over  the  edge.  Till  they  consent  to  be  circumcised, 
they  have  not  finally  committed  themselves ;  their 
freedom  is  not  absolutely  lost.  The  Apostle  still  hopes, 
despite  his  fears,  that  they  will  stand  fast  (ver.  lO; 
ch.  iv.  1 1  ;  iii.  4).  The  fatal  step  is  eagerly  pressed 
on  them  by  the  Judaizers  (ch.  vi.  12,  13),  whose  per- 
suasion the  Galatians  had  so  far  entertained,  that  they 
had  begun  to  keep  the  Hebrew  sabbath  and  feast-days 
(ch.  iv.  10).  If  thoy  yield  to  this  further  demand,  the 
battle  is  lost ;  and  this  powerful   Epistle,  with   all  the 


v.2-6.]   SHALL  THE  GALATL4NS  BE  CIKCUMCISEDt   303 

Apostle's  previous  labour  spent  upon  them,  has  been 
in  vain.  To  sever  this  section  from  the  polemical  in 
order  to  attach  it  to  the  practical  part  of  the  Epistle, 
as  many  commentators  do,  is  to  cut  the  nerve  of  the 
Apostle's  argument  and  reduce  it  to  an  abstract 
theological  discussion. 

This  momentous  question  is  brought  forward  with 
the  greater  emphasis  and  effect,  because  it  has  hitherto 
been  kept  out  of  sight.  The  allusion  to  Titus  in 
ch.  ii.  I — 5  has  already  indicated  the  supreme  import- 
ance of  the  matter  of  circumcision.  But  the  Apostle 
has  delayed  dealing  with  it  formally  and  directly,  until 
he  is  able  to  do  so  with  the  weight  of  the  foregoing 
chapters  to  support  his  interdict.  He  has  shattered 
the  enemies'  position  with  his  artillery  of  logic,  he  has 
assailed  the  hearts  of  his  readers  with  all  the  force  of 
his  burning  indignation  and  subduing  pathos.  Now 
he  gathers  up  his  strength  for  the  final  charge  home, 
which  must  decide  the  battle. 

I.  Lo,  1  Paul  tell  you  !  When  he  begins  thus, 
we  feel  that  the  decisive  moment  is  at  hand.  Every- 
thing depends  on  the  next  few  words.  Paul  stands 
like  an  archer  with  his  bow  drawn  at  full  stretch 
and  the  arrow  pointed  to  the  mark.  *'  Let  others 
say  what  they  may ;  this  is  what  /  tell  you.  If 
my  word  has  any  weight  with  you,  give   heed  to  this  : 

— IF  YOU  BE  CIRCUMCISED,  ChRIST  WILL  PROFIT  YOU 
NOTHING." 

Now  his  bolt  is  shot;  we  see  what  the  Apostle  has 
had  in  his  mind  all  this  time.  Language  cannot  be 
more  explicit.  Some  of  his  readers  will  have  failed  to 
catch  the  subtler  points  of  his  argument,  or  the  finer 
tones  of  his  voice  of  entreaty;  but  every  one  will  under- 
stand    this.       The    most    "  senseless "     and    volatile 


304  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

amongst  the  Galatians  will  surely  be  sobered  by  the 
terms  of  this  warning.  There  is  no  escaping  the 
dilemma.  Legalism  and  Paulinism,  the  true  and  the 
false  gospel,  stand  front  to  front,  reduced  to  their  barest 
form,  and  weighed  each  in  the  balance  of  its  practical 
result.     Christ — or  Circumcision  :  which  shall  it  be  ? 

This  declaration  is  no  less  authoritative  and  judicially 
threatening  than  the  anathema  of  ch.  i.  That  former 
denouncement  declared  the  false  teachers  severed  from 
Christ.  Those  who  yield  to  their  persuasion,  will  be 
also  *'  severed  from  Christ."  They  will  fall  into  the 
same  ditch  as  their  blind  leaders.  The  Judaizers  have 
forfeited  their  part  in  Christ ;  they  are  false  brethren, 
tares  among  the  wheat,  troublers  and  hinderers  to  the 
Church  of  God.  And  Gentile  Christians  who  choose 
to  be  led  astray  by  them  must  take  the  consequences. 
If  they  obey  the  "  other  gospel,"  Christ's  gospel  is 
theirs  no  longer.  If  they  rest  their  faith  on  circum- 
cision, they  have  withdrawn  it  from  His  cross.  Adopt- 
ing the  Mosaic  regimen,  they  forego  the  benefits  of 
Christ's  redemption.  ''  Christ  will  profit  you  nothing." 
The  sentence  is  negative,  but  no  less  fearful  on  that 
account.  It  is  as  though  Christ  should  say,  ''  Thou 
hast  no  part  with  Me." 

Circumcision  will  cost  the  Galatian  Christians  all 
they  possess  in  Jesus  Christ.  But  is  not  this,  some 
one  will  ask,  an  over-strained  assertion  ?  Is  it  con- 
sistent with  Paul's  professions  and  his  policy  in  other 
instances?  In  ver.  6,  and  again  in  the  last  chapter, 
he  declares  that  ^'Circumcision  is  nothing,  and  uncir- 
cumcision  nothing  " ;  and  yet  here  he  makes  it  every- 
thing !  The  Apostle's  position  is  this.  In  itself  the 
rite  is  valueless.  It  was  the  sacrament  of  the  Old 
Covenant,  which  was  brought  to  an  end  by  the  death 


v.2-r,.]   SHALL  THE  GALATJANS  BE  CIRCUMCISED^    305 


of  Christ.  For  the  new  Church  of  the  Spirit,  it  is  a 
matter  of  perfect  indifference  whether  a  man  is  circum- 
cised or  not.  Paul  had  therefore  circumcised  Timothy, 
whose  mother  was  a  Jewess  (Acts  xvi.  i — 3),  though 
neither  he  nor  his  young  disciple  supposed  that  it  was 
a  religious  necessity.  It  was  done  as  a  social  con- 
venience ;  "  uncircumcision  was  nothing,"  and  could  in 
such  a  case  be  surrendered  without  prejudice.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  refused  to  submit  Titus  to  the  same 
rite ;  for  he  was  a  pure  Greek,  and  on  him  it  could  only 
have  been  imposed  on  religious  grounds  and  as  a 
passport  to  salvation.  For  this,  and  for  no  other  reason, 
it  was  demanded  by  the  Judaistic  party.  In  this  instance 
it  was  needful  to  show  that  "circumcision  is  nothing." 
The  Galatians  stood  in  the  same  position  as  Titus. 
Circumcision,  if  performed  on  them,  must  have  denoted, 
not  as  in  Timothy's  case,  the  fact  of  Jewish  birth, 
but  subjection  to  the  Mosaic  law.  Regarded  in  this 
light,  the  question  was  one  of  life  or  death  for  the 
Pauline  Churches.  To  yield  to  the  Judaizers  would 
be  to  surrender  the  principle  of  salvation  by  faith. 
The  attempt  of  the  legalist  party  was  in  effect  to  force 
Christianity  into  the  grooves  of  Mosaism,  to  reduce  the 
world-wide  Church  of  the  Spirit  to  a  sect  of  moribund 
Judaism. 

With  what  views,  with  what  aim  were  the  Galatians 
entertaining  this  Judaic  **  persuasicn"  ?  Was  it  to 
make  them  sons  of  God  and  heirs  of  His  kingdom  ? 
This  was  the  object  with  which  "God  sent  forth  His 
Son;"  and  the  Spirit  of  sonship  assured  them  that  it 
was  realised  (ch.  iv.  4 — 7).  To  adopt  the  former  means 
to  this  end  was  to  renounce  the  latter.  In  turning 
their  eyes  to  this  new  bewitchment,  they  must  be  con- 
scious   that    their    attention    was    diverted    from    the 

20 


io6  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


Redeemer's  cross  and  their  confidence  in  it  weakened 
(ch.  iii.  i).  To  be  circumcised  would  be  to  rest  their 
salvation  fori  lly  and  definitely  on  works  of  law,  in 
place  of  the  grace  of  God.  The  consequences  of  this 
Paul  has  shown  in  relating  his  discussion  with  Peter, 
in  ch.  ii.  15 — 21.  They  would  "make"  themselves 
*^  transgressors  ;  "  they  would  ''  make  Christ's  death  of 
none  effect."  In  the  soul's  salvation  Christ  will  be 
all,  or  nothing.  If  we  trust  Him,  we  must  trust  Him 
altogether.  The  Galatians  had  already  admitted  a 
suspicion  of  the  power  of  His  grace,  which  if  cherished 
and  acted  on  in  the  way  proposed,  must  sever  all 
communion  between  their  souls  and  Him.  Their  cir- 
cumcision would  be  ^'  the  sacrament  of  their  excision 
from  Christ"  (Huxtable). 

The  tense  of  the  verb  is  present.  Paul's  readers  may 
be  in  the  act  of  making  this  disastrous  compliance. 
He  bids  them  look  for  a  moment  at  the  depth  of  the 
gulf  on  whose  brink  they  stand.  "  Stop !  "  he  cries, 
"  another  step  in  that  direction,  and  you  have  lost 
Christ." 

And  what  will  they  get  in  exchange?  They  will 
saddle  themselves  with  all  the  obligations  of  the  Mosaic 
law  (ver.  3).  This  probably  was  more  than  they 
bargained  for.  They  wished  to  find  a  via  media,  some 
compromise  between  the  new  faith  and  the  old,  which 
would  secure  to  them  the  benefits  of  Christ  without 
His  reproach,  and  the  privileges  of  Judaism  without 
its  burdens.  This  at  least  was  the  policy  of  the  Judaic 
teachers  (ch.  vi.  12,  13).  But  it  was  a  false  and 
untenable  position.  "Circumcision  verily  profiteth,  if 
thou  art  a  doer  of  the  laiv  "  (Rom.  ii.  25) ;  otherwise  it 
brings  only  condemnation.  He  who  receives  the  sacra- 
ment of  Mosp.isn,  by  doing  so  pledges  himself  to  "keep 


v.2-6.]   SHALL  THE  GALATIANS  BE  CIRCUMCISED)    307 


and  do"  every  one  of  its  "ordinances,  statutes,  and 
judgcnitnts" — a  yoke  which,  honest  Peter  said,  "Neither 
we  nor  our  fathers  were  able  to  bear"  (Acts  xv.  lo). 
Let  the  Galatians  read  the  law,  and  consider  what  they 
are  going  to  undertake.  He  who  goes  with  the  JuiJaists 
a  mile,  will  be  compelled  to  go  twain.  They  will  not 
find  themselves  at  liberty  to  pick  and  choose  amongst 
the  legal  requirements.  Their  legalist  teachers  will 
not  raise  a  finger  to  lighten  the  yoke  (Luke  xi.  46), 
when  it  is  once  fastened  on  their  necks  ;  nor  w^ill  their 
own  consciences  acquit  them  of  its  responsibilities. 
This  obligation  Paul,  himself  a  master  in  Jewish  law, 
solemnly  affirms:  "I  protest  (I  declare  before  God)  to 
every  man  that  is  circumcised,  that  he  is  a  debtor  to 
perform  the  whole  law." 

Now  this  is  a  proved  impossibility.  Whoever  "  sets 
up  the  law,"  he  had  avouched  to  Cephas,  "  makes  him- 
self a  transgressor  "  (ch.  ii.  18).  Nay,  it  was  established 
of  set  purpose  to  ''  multiply  transgressions,"  to  deepen 
and  sharpen  the  consciousness  of  sin  (ch.  iii.  19  ;  Rom. 
iii.  '20;  iv.  15;  v.  20).  Jewish  believers  in  Christ, 
placed  under  i:s  power  by  their  birth,  had  thankfully 
found  in  the  faith  of  Christ  a  refuge  from  its  accusations 
(ch.  ii.  16;  Rom.  vii.  24 — viii.  4).  Surely  the  Galatians, 
knowing  all  this,  will  not  be  so  foolish  as  to  put  them- 
selves gratuitously  under  its  power.  To  do  this  would 
be  an  insult  to  Christ,  and  an  act  of  moral  suicide. 
This  furtlier  warning  reinforces  the  first,  and  is 
uttered  with  equal  solemnity.  "  I  tell  you,  Christ  will 
profit  you  nothing ;  and  again  1  testify,  the  law 
will  lay  its  full  weight  up^n  you."  They  will  be  left, 
without  the  help  of  Christ,  to  bear  this  tremendous 
burden. 

This  double  threatening  is  blended  into  one  in  vcr.  4, 


3oS  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS, 


The  pregnant  force  of  Paul's  Greek  is  untranslatable. 
Literally  his  words  run,  ''  You  were  nullified  from  Christ 
(^Karripryi]6r]Te  dire  XpLcrrov) — brought  to  nought  (being 
severed)  from  Him,  you  that  in  law  are  seeking  justifi- 
cation." He  puts  his  assertion  in  the  past  (aon'si) 
tense,  stating  that  which  ensues  so  soon  as  the  principle 
of  legal  justification  is  endorsed.  From  that  moment 
the  Galatians  cease  to  be  Christians.  In  this  sense 
they  ''  are  abolished,"  Just  as  *'  the  cross  is  "  virtually 
'^ abolished"  if  the  Apostle  ^'preaches  circumcision" 
(ver.  ii),  and  "death  is  being  abolished"  under  the 
reign  of  Christ  (i  Cor.  xv.  26).  He  has  said  in  ver.  2 
that  Christ  will  be  made  of  none  effect  to  them  ;  now 
he  adds  that  they  "  are  made  of  none  effect "  in  relation 
to  Christ.  Their  Christian  standing  is  destroyed.  The 
joyous  experiences  of  their  conversion,  their  share  in 
Abraham's  blessing,  their  Divine  sonship  witnessed  to 
by  the  Holy  Spirit — all  this  is  nullified,  cancelled  at  a 
stroke,  if  they  are  circumcised.  The  detachment  of 
their  faith  ''  from  Christ  "  is  involved  in  the  process  of 
attaching  it  to  Jewish  ordinances,  and  brings  spiritual 
destruction  upon  them.  The  root  of  the  Christian  life 
is  faith  in  Him.  Let  that  root  be  severed,  let  the 
branch  no  longer  *^  abide  in  the  vine " — it  is  dead 
already.* 

Cut  off  from  Christ,  they  *'  have  fallen  from  grace." 
Paul  has  already  twice  identified  C/irisl  and  grace,  in 
ch.  i.  6  and  ii.  21.  The  Divine  mercies  centre  in 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  he  who  separates  himself  from  Him, 
shuts  these  out  of  his  soul.  The  verb  here  used  by 
the  Apostle  (efeTrecrare)  is  commonly  applied  (four 
times  e.g.  in  Acts  xxvii.)  to  a  ship  driven   out  of  her 

*  Comp.  John  xv.  5,  6,  where  in  ij3Xrj67],  i^ripcLfdr},  there  is  a  like 
summary  aorist. 


v.2-6.]   SHALL  THE  GALATL4XS  BE  CIRCUMCiSEDf   309 

course.  Some  such  image  seems  to  be  in  the  writer's 
mind  in  this  passage.  These  racers  made  an  e.xcellent 
start,  but  they  have  stumbled  (ver.  7;  ch.  iii.  3);  the 
vessel  set  out  from  harbour  in  gallant  style,  but  she  is 
drifting  fast  upon  the  rocks.  This  sentence  "  is  the 
exa»^t  opposite  of  '  stand  in  the  grace/  Rom.  v.  2  " 
(Beet).* 

'I  hat  he  who  *^  seeks  justification  in  law  has  fallen 
from  grace^^  needs  no  proof  after  the  powerful  demon- 
stration of  ch.  ii.  14 — 21.  The  moralist  claims  quit- 
tance on  the  ground  of  his  deservings.  He  pleads 
the  quality  of  his  "  works/'  his  punctual  discharge  of 
every  stipulated  duty,  from  circumcision  onwards.  "  I 
fast  twice  a  week/'  he  tells  his  Divine  Judge  ;  "  I  tithe 
all  my  gains.  I  have  kept  all  the  commandments  from 
my  youth  up."  What  can  God  expect  more  than  this  ? 
But  with  these  performances  Grace  has  nothing  to  do. 
The  man  is  not  in  its  order.  If  he  invokes  its  aid,  it  is 
as  a  make-weight,  a  supplement  to  the  possible  short- 
comings in  a  virtue  for  the  most  part  competent  for 
itself.  Now  the  grace  of  God  is  not  to  be  set  aside  in 
this  way ;  it  refuses  to  be  treated  as  a  mere  succcda- 
neum  of  human  virtue.  Grace,  lilce  Christ,  insists  on 
being  ''all  in  all."  *' If  salvation  is  by  grace,  it  is  no 
longer  of  works;"  and  "if  of  works,  it  is  no  more 
grace  "  (Rom.  xi.  6).  These  two  methods  of  justifica- 
tion imply  different  moral  tempers,  an  opposite  set  and 
direction  of  the  current  of  life.  This  question  of  cir- 
cumcision brings  the  Galatians  to  the  parting  of  the 
ways.  Grace  or  Law — which  of  the  two  roads  will  they 
follow  ?  Both  they  cannot.  They  may  become  Jewish 
prosel^'tes ;    but    they    will    cease    to    be    Christians. 

*  Comp.    2  Pet.   iii.    17;    for   the   figure   suggested,  Eph.    iv.    14; 
I  Tim.  i.  19. 


3IO  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATJANS. 

Leaving  behind  them  the  Hght  and  joy  of  the  heavenly 
Zion,  they  will  find  themselves  wandering  in  the 
gloomy  desolations  of  Sinai. 

II.  From  this  prospect  the  Apostle  bids  his  readers 
turn  to  that  which  he  himself  beholds,  and  which  they 
erewhile  shared  with  him.  Again  he  seems  to  say, 
"  Be  ye  as  I  am,  brethren  "  (ch.  iv.  12) ;  not  in  outward 
condition  alone,  but  still  more  in  inward  experience 
and  aspiration.  ^*  For  ive  by  the  Spirit,  on  the  ground 
of  faith,  are  awaiting  the  hope  of  righteousness  "  (ver.  5). 

Look  on  this  picture,  and  on  that.  Yonder  are  the 
Galatians,  all  in  tumult  about  the  legalistic  proposals, 
debating  which  of  the  Hebrew  feasts  they  shall  cele- 
brate and  with  what  rites,  absorbed  in  the  details  of 
Mosaic  ceremony,  all  but  persuaded  to  be  circumcised 
and  to  settle  their  scruples  out  of  hand  by  a  blind  sub- 
mission to  the  Law.  And  here,  on  the  other  side,  is 
Paul  with  the  Church  of  the  Spirit,  walking  in  the 
righteousness  of  faith  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  joyfully  awaiting  the  Saviour's  final  coming  and 
the  hope  that  is  laid  up  in  heaven.  How  vexed,  how 
burdened,  how  narrow  and  puerile  is  the  one  condition 
of  life ;  how  large  and  lofty  and  secure  the  other. 
"We,"  says  the  Apostle  "are  looking  forwards  not 
backwards,  to  Christ  and  not  to  Moses." 

Every  word  in  this  sentence  is  full  of  meaning. 
Faith  carries  an  emphasis  similar  to  that  it  has  in 
ch.  ii.  16;  iii.  22;  and  in  Rom.  iv.  16.  Paul  supports 
by  contrast  what  he  has  just  said  :  "  Your  share  in  the 
kingdom  of  grace  is  lost  who  seek  a  legal  righteousness 
(ver.  4) ;  it  is  by  faith  that  we  look  for  our  heritage." 
Hope  is  clearly  matter  of  hope^  the  future  glory  of  the 
redeemed,  described  in  Rom.  viii.  18 — 25,  Phil.  iii.  20, 
21,  in  both  of  which  places  there  appears  the  remark- 


V.2-6.J   SHALL  THE  GALATLINS  HE  ClKCUMClSEDi    311 

ably  com  poll  lukd  verb  (inr-^K-h^yiyLtOa)  that  concludes 
this  verse.  It  ini|)ne.s  an  intent  expectancy,  sure  of  its 
object  and  satisfied  with  it.  The  hope  is  *'  righteous- 
ness' hope" — the  hope  of  the  righteous — for  it  has  in 
righteousness  its  warrant.  The  saying  of  I'sahii  xvi., 
verified  in  Christ's  rising  from  the  dead,  contains  its 
principle:  "Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  to  death;  nor 
sufier  Thine  holy  one  to  see  the  pit."  This  was  the 
secret  "  hope  of  Israel,"  *  that  grew  up  in  the  hearts  of 
the  men  of  faith,  whose  accomplishment  is  the  crowning 
glory  of  the  redemption  of  Christ.  It  is  the  goal  of 
faith.  Righteousness  is  the  path  that  leads  to  it.  The 
Galatians  had  been  persuaded  of  this  hope  and  embraced 
it ;  if  they  accept  the  ''  other  gospel,"  with  its  phantom 
of  a  legal  righteousness,  their  hope  will  perish. 

The  Apostle  is  always  true  to  the  order  of  thought 
here  indicated.  Faith  saves  from  first  to  last.  The 
present  righteousness  and  future  glory  of  the  sons  of 
God  alike  have  their  source  in  faith.  The  act  of  reli- 
ance by  which  the  initial  justification  of  the  sinner  was 
attained,  now  becomes  the  habit  of  the  soul,  the  channel 
by  which  its  life  is  fed,  rooting  itself  ever  more  deeply 
into  Christ  and  absorbing  more  completely  the  virtue  of 
His  death  and  heavenly  life.  Faith  has  its  great 
ventures  ;  it  has  also  its  seasons  of  endurance,  its 
moods  of  quiet  expectancy,  its  unweariable  patience. 
It  can  wait  as  well  as  work.  It  rests  upon  the  past, 
seeing  in  Christ  crucified  its  "  author ;"  then  it  looks 
on  to  the  future,  and  claims  Christ  glorified  for  its 
"  finisher."  So  faith  prompts  her  sister  Hope  and 
points  her  to  "  the  glory  that  shall  be  revealed."  If 
faith  fails,  hope  quickly  dies.     Unbelief  is  the  mother 

•  Acts  xxiii.  6  ;  xxiv.  15  ;  xxvi.  6     8  ;  coinp.  J<»}in  vi,  39,  40,  44. 

1 


;i2  THE  EPISTLE    TO    THE   GALATIANS. 


of  despair.     "  Of   faith/'   the  Apostle  says,  '*  we  look 
out ! " 

A  second  condition,  inseparable  from  the  first,  marks 
the  hope  proper  to  the  Christian  righteousness.  It  is 
sustained  ''  by  the  Spirit."  The  connection  of  faith 
and  hope  respectively  with  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  marked  very  clearly  by  Paul  in  Eph.  i.  13,  14: 
"  Having  believed,  you  were  sealed  with  the  Holy  Spirit, 
who  is  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance^  The  Holy  Spirit 
seals  the  sons  of  God — "  sons,  then  heirs"  (ch.  iv.  6,  7  ; 
Rom.  viii.  15 — 17).  This  stamps  on  Christian  hope  a 
spiritual  character.  The  conception  which  we  form  of 
it,  the  means  by  which  it  is  pursued,  the  temper  and 
attitude  in  which  it  is  expected,  are  determined  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  who  inspires  it.  This  pure  and  celestial 
hope  is  therefore  utterly  removed  from  the  selfish 
ambitions  and  the  sensuous  methods  that  distinguished 
the  Judaistic  movement  (ch.  iv.  3,  9;  vi.  12 — 14). 
"Men  of  worldly,  low  design"  like  Paul's  opponents 
in  Galatia,  had  no  right  to  entertain  ''  the  hope  of 
righteousness."  These  matters  are  spiritually  dis- 
cerned ;  they  are  "  the  things  of  the  Spirit,  the  things 
which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  Him  "  (l 
Cor.  ii.  9 — 14). 

If  faith  and  hope  are  in  sight,  love  cannot  be  far  ofif. 
In  the  next  verse  it  comes  to  claim  its  place  beside  the 
other  two  :  "  faith  working  through  love."  And  so  the 
blessed  trio  is  complete,  Fides,  amor,  spes :  sununa 
Chri^tiaiiismi  (Bengel).     Faith  waits,  but  it  also  works ;* 

*  **  IVorktng  through  love,"  not  wrought  (R.V.  margin).  The  latter 
rendering  of  the  participle  is  found  in  some  of  the  Fathers,  and  is  pre- 
ferred by  Romanist  interpreters  in  the  interest  of  their  doctrine  oi  Jides 
formata.  Paul's  theology  and  his  verbal  usage  alike  require  the  ?/nddU 
sense  of   this  verb,  adopted  by  modern  commentators  with  one  con* 


V.2-6.J   SHALL  THE  GALAJJANS  BE  C/A'CL'MCLSEDt   313 


and  love  is  its  working  energy.  Love  gives  faith 
liands  and  feet ;  hope  lends  it  wings.  Love  is  the  fire 
at  its  heart,  the  life-blood  coursing  in  its  veins;  hope 
the  light  that  gleams  and  dances  in  its  eyes.  Looking 
back  to  the  Christ  that  hath  been  manifested,  faith 
kindles  into  a  boundless  love;  looking  onward  to  the 
Christ  that  shall  be  revealed,  it  rises  into  an  exultant 
hope. 

These  closing  words  are  of  no  little  theological 
importance.  '*  They  bridge  over  the  gulf  which  seems 
to  separate  the  language  of  Paul  and  James.  Both 
assert  a  principle  of  practical  energy,  as  opposed  to  a 
barren,  inactive  theory  "  (Lightfoot).  Had  the  faith  of 
Paul's  readers  been  more  practical,  had  they  been  of 
a  diligent,  enterprising  spirit,  "  ready  for  every  good 
word  and  work,"  they  would  not  have  felt,  to  the  same 
degree,  the  spell  of  the  Judaistic  fascination.  Idle  hands, 
vain  and  restless  minds,  court  temptation.  A  manly, 
energetic  faith  will  never  play  at  ritualism  or  turn 
religion  into  a  round  of  ceremonial,  an  aesthetic  exhibi- 
tion. Loving  and  self-devoting  faith  in  Christ  is  the  one 
thing  Paul  covets  to  see  in  the  Galatians.  This  is  the 
working  power  of  the  gospel,  the  force  that  will  lift  and 
regenerate  mankind.  In  comparison  with  this,  ques- 
tions of  Church-order  and  forms  of  worship  are 
"  nothing."  "  The  body  is  more  than  the  raiment." 
Church  organization  is  a  means  to  a  certain  end  ;  and 
that  end  consists  in  the  life  of  faith  and  love  in 
Christian  souls.     Each  man  is  worth  to  Christ  and  to 

sent.  The  middle  voice  implies  that  through  love  faith  gels  into  action^ 
is  operative,  efficacious,  shoivs  ivhat  it  can  do.  Comp.,  for  Pauline  usage, 
Rom.  vii.  5  ;  2  Cor.  i.  6.  iv.  12  ;  Eph.  iii.  20 ;  Col.  i.  29  ;  i  Thess.  ii. 
13 ;  2  Thess.  ii.  7  ;  an<l  see  Moullon's  Winer's  N.  T.  Grammar^ 
p.  318  (note  on  liynamic  middle). 


314  THE    EPISTLE   TO   THE   CAlATHlNS. 

His  Church  just  so  much  as  he  possesses  of  this  energy 
of  the  Spirit,  just  so  much  as  he  has  of  love  to  Christ 
and  to  men  in  Him.  Other  gifts  and  quahties,  offices 
and  orders  of  ministry,  are  but  instruments  for  love  to 
employ,  machinery  for  love  to  energize. 

The  Apostle  wishes  it  to  be  understood  that  he  does 
not  condemn  circumcision  on  its  own  account,  as  though 
the  opposite  condition  were  in  itself  superior.  If  "  cir- 
cumcision does  not  avail  anything,  neither  does  uncir- 
cumcisiony  The  Jev/  is  no  better  or  worse  a  Christian 
because  he  is  circumcised ;  the  Gentile  no  worse  or  better, 
because  he  is  not.  This  difference  in  no  way  affects  the 
man's  spiritual  standing  or  efficiency.  Let  the  Galatians 
dismiss  the  whole  question  from  their  minds.  "  One 
thing  is  needful,"  to  be  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  love. 
'*  God's  kingdom  is  not  meat  and  drink ; "  it  is  not 
"  days  and  seasons  and  years  ;  "  it  is  not  circumcision, 
nor  rubrics  and  vestments  and  priestly  functions  ;  it  is 
"righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Spirit." 
These  are  the  true  notes  of  the  Church  ;  "  by  love," 
said  Christ,  *^all  men  will  know  that  you  are  My 
disciples." 

In  these  two  sentences  (vv.  5  ^^^  6)  the  religion 
of  Christ  is  summed  up.  Ver.  5  gives  us  its  statics ; 
ver.  6  its  dynamics.  It  is  a  condition,  and  an  occupa- 
tion ;  a  grand  outlook,  and  an  intent  pursuit ;  a  Divine 
hope  for  the  future,  and  a  sovereign  power  for  the 
present,  with  an  infinite  spring  of  energy  in  the  love  of 
Christ.  The  active  and  passive  elements  of  the  Christian 
life  need  to  be  justly  balanced.  Many  of  the  errors  of 
the  Church  have  arisen  from  one-sidedness  in  this 
respect.  Some  do  nothing  but  sit  with  folded  hands 
till  the  Lord  comes ;  others  are  too  busy  to  think  of 
His  coming  at  all.     So  waiting  degenerates    into  in- 


v.2-6.]    SHALL  TILE  GAL.ATIANS  BE  C/A'CUMCISEDl   315 


dolcnce  ;  and  serving  into  feverish  hurry  and  anxiety, 
or  mechaniral  routine.  Let  hope  give  calmness  and 
dignity,  buoyancy  and  brightness  to  our  work  ;  let  work 
make  our  hope  sober,  reasonable,  practical. 

"  These  three  abide — faith,  hope,  and  love."  They 
cannot  change  while  God  is  God  and  man  is  man. 
Forms  of  dogma  and  of  worship  have  changed  and 
must  change.  There  is  a  perpetual  "  removing  of  the 
things  that  are  sliaken,  as  of  things  that  are  made;" 
but  through  all  revolutions  there  "  remain  the  thii^.gs 
which  are  not  sliaken."  To  these  let  us  rally.  On 
these  let  us  build.  New  questions  thrust  themselves 
to  the  front,  touching  matters  as  little  essential  to  the 
Church's  life  as  that  of  circumcision  in  the  Apostolic 
age.  The  evil  is  that  we  make  so  much  of  them.  In 
the  din  of  controversy  we  grow  bewildered  ;  our  eyes 
are  blinded  with  its  dust ;  our  souls  chafed  with  its 
fretting.  We  lose  the  sense  of  proportion  ;  we  fail  to 
see  who  are  our  true  friends,  and  who  our  foes.  We 
need  to  return  to  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ.  Let 
us  "consider  Him" — Christ  incarnate,  dying,  risen, 
reigning — till  we  are  changed  into  the  same  image,  till 
His  life  has  wrought  itself  into  ours.  Then  these 
questions  of  dispute  will  fall  into  their  proper  place. 
They  will  resolve  themselves ;  or  wait  patiently  for 
their  solution.  Loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only 
solvent  of  our  controversies. 

Will  the  Galatians  be  true  to  Christ  ?  Or  will  they 
renounce  their  righteousness  in  Him  for  a  legal  status, 
morally  worthless,  and  which  will  end  in  taking  from 
them  the  hope  of  eternal  life  ?  They  have  nothing  to 
gain,  they  have  everything  to  lose  in  submitting  to 
circumcision. 


i 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

TITE  HINDERERS  AND    TROUBLERS. 

*'  Ye  were  running  well  ;  who  did  hinder  you  that  ye  should  not  obey 
the  truth?  This  persuasion  came  not  of  him  that  calleth  you.  A  little 
leaven  leaveneth  the  whole  lump.  I  have  confidence  to  you-ward,  in 
the  Lord,  that  ye  will  be  none  otherwise  mimJed  :  but  he  that  troubleth 
you  shall  bear  his  judgement,  whosoever  he  be.  But  I,  brethren,  if  I 
still  preach  circumcision,  why  am  I  still  persecuted  ?  then  hath  the 
stumblingblock  of  the  cross  been  done  away.  I  would  that  they 
which  unsettle  you  would  even  mutilate  themselves." — Gal.  v.  7 — 12. 

THE  Apostle's  controversy  with  the  LegaHsts  is 
all  but  concluded.  He  has  pronounced  on  the 
question  of  circumcision.  He  has  shown  his  readers, 
with  an  emphasis  and  clearness  that  leave  nothing 
more  to  be  said,  how  fearful  is  the  cost  at  which  they 
will  accept  the  ^' other  gospel/'  and  how  heavy  the 
yoke  which  it  will  impose  upon  them..  A  few  further 
observations  remain  to  be  made — of  regret,  of  re^ 
monstrance,  blended  with  expressions  of  confidence 
more  distinct  than  any  the  Apostle  has  hitherto 
employed.  Then  with  a  last  contemptuous  thrust,  a 
sort  of  coup  de  grace  for  the  Circumcisionists,  Paul 
passes  to  the  practical  and  ethical  part  of  his  letter. 

This  section  is  made  up  of  short,  disconnected 
sentences,  shot  off  in  various  directions ;  as  though  the 
writer  wished  to  have  done  with  the  Judaistic  debate, 
and  would    discharge  at   a  single   volley  the   arrows 


V.  7-I2.J       THE   illNDEREKii  AND    IKUUBLLK6.  317 

remaining  in  his  quiver.  Its  prevailing  tone  is  that  of 
concihation  towards  the  Galatians  (comp.  Chapter xviii.), 
with  increasing  severity  towards  the  legalist  teachers. 
"  See  how  bitter  he  is  against  the  deceivers.  For 
indeed  at  the  beginning  he  directed  his  censures  against 
the  deceived,  calling  them  *  senseless '  both  once  and 
again.  But  now  that  he  has  sufficiently  chastened  and 
corrected  them,  for  the  rest  he  turns  against  their 
deceivers.  And  we  should  observe  his  wisdom  in  both 
these  things,  in  that  he  admonishes  the  one  party  and 
brings  them  to  a  better  mind,  being  his  own  children 
and  capable  of  amendment ;  but  the  deceivers,  who 
are  a  foreign  element  and  incurably  diseased,  he  cuts 
off"  (Chrysostom). 

There  lie  before  us  therefore  in  this  paragraph  the 
following  considerations : — Paul's  hope  concerning  the 
Galatian  Chiuxhes^  his  protest  on  his  own  behalf,  and 
finally,  his  judgement  respecting  the  troublers. 

I.  The  more  hopeful  strain  of  the  letter  at  this  point 
appears  to  be  due  to  the  effect  of  his  argument  upon 
the  writer's  own  mind.  As  the  breadth  and  grandeur 
of  the  Christian  faith  open  out  before  him,  and  he 
contrasts  its  spiritual  glory  with  the  ignoble  aims  of 
the  Circumcisionists,  Paul  cannot  think  that  the  readers 
will  any  longer  doubt  which  is  the  true  gospel.  Surely 
they  will  be  disenchanted.  His  irrefragable  reasonings, 
his  pleading  entreaties  and  solemn  warnings  are  bound 
to  call  forth  a  response  from  a  people  so  intelligent  and 
so  affectionate.  "  For  my  part,"  he  says,  ''  /  am  confi- 
dent in  the  Lord  that  you  will  be  no  otherwise  mtndcd 
(ver.  10),  that  you  will  be  faithful  to  your  Divine  calling, 
despite  the  hindrances  tlirown  in  your  way."  '1  hey 
will,  he  is  persuaded,  come  to  see  the  proposals  of  the 
Judaizers  in  their  proper  light.     They  will  think  about 


r.iS  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANii. 


a 


the  Christian  life — its  objects  and  principles — as  he 
himself  does  ;  and  will  perceive  how  fatal  would  be  the 
step  they  are  urged  to  take.  They  will  be  true  to 
themselves  and  to  the  Spirit  of  sonship  they  have 
received.  They  will  pursue  more  earnestly  the  hope 
set  before  them  and  give  themselves  with  renewed 
energy  to  the  work  of  faith  and  love  (vv.  5;  6),  and 
forget  as  soon  as  possible  this  distracting  and  unprofit- 
able controversy. 

"  In  the  Lord  "  Paul  cherishes  this  confidence.  ''  In 
Christ's  grace  "  the  Galatians  were  called  to  enter  the 
kingdom  of  God  (ver.  8;  ch.  i.  6)  ;  and  He  was  concerned 
that  the  work  begun  in  them  should  be  completed 
(Phil.  i.  6).  It  may  be  the  Apostle  at  this  moment 
was  conscious  of  some  assurance  from  his  Master  that 
his  testim.ony  in  this  Epistle  would  not  prove  in  vain. 
The  recent  *  submission  of  the  Corinthians  would  tend 
to  increase  Paul's  confidence  in  his  authority  over  the 
Gentile  Churches. 

Another  remembrance  quickens  the  feeling  of  hope 
with  which  the  Apostle  draws  the  conflict  to  a  close. 
He  reminds  himself  of  the  good  confession  the  Galatians 
bad  aforetime  witnessed,!  the  zeal  with  which  they 
pursued  the  Christian  course,  until  this  deplorable 
hindrance  arose  :  "  You  were  running  \^^— finely. 
You  had  fixed  your  eyes  on  the  heavenly  prize.  Filled 
with  an  ardent  faith,  you  were  zealously  pursuing  the 
great  spiritual  ends  of  the  Christian  life  (comp.  vv.  5,  6). 
Your  progress  has  been  arrested.  You  have  yielded 
to  influences  which  are  not  of  God  who  called  you, 
and  admitted  amongst  you  a  leaven  that,  if  not  cast 


•  See  Chapter  I,  pp.  15,  16,  on  the  date  of  the  Epistle. 
f  Comp.  ch.  iii.  4 :  ^^  yc  suffered  so  many  things'' 


V.7-I2.]      niE  IIIKDKKERS  AND   TKOUnLERS.  319 

out,  will  corrupt  you  utterly  (vv.  8,  9).  But  I  trust 
that  this  result  will  be  averted.  You  will  return  to 
better  thoughts.  You  will  resume  the  interrupted  race, 
and  by  God's  mercy  will  be  enabled  to  bring  it  to  a 
glorious  issue  "  (vcr.  10). 

There  is  kindness  and  true  wisdom  in  this  encourage- 
ment. The  Apostle  has  "  told  tiiem  the  truth  ; "  he  has 
'*  reproved  with  all  authority;"  now  that  this  is  done, 
their  remains  nothing  in  his  heart  but  good-will  and 
good  wishes  for  his  Galatian  children.  If  his  chiding 
has  wrought  the  effect  it  was  intended  to  produce,  then 
these  words  of  softened  admonition  will  be  grateful 
and  healing.  They  have  "stumbled,  but  not  that  they 
might  fall."  The  Apostle  holds  out  the  hand  of  restora- 
tion ;  his  confidence  animates  them  to  hope  better 
things  for  themselves.  lie  turns  his  anger  away  from 
them,  and  directs  it  altogether  upon  their  injurers. 

II.  The  Judaizers  had  troubled  the  Churches  of 
Galatia ;  they  had  also  luah'giicd  the  Apostle  Paul, 
From  them  undoubtedly  the  imputation  proceeded 
which  he  repudiates  so  warmly  in  ver.  1 1  :  "  And  I, 
brethren,  if  I  am  still  preaching  circumcision,  why  am 
I  still  persecuted  ? "  This  supposition  a  moment's 
reflection  would  suffice  to  refute.  The  contradiction 
was  manifest.  The  persecution  which  everywhere 
followed  the  Apostle  marked  him  out  in  all  men's  eyes 
as  the  adversary  of  Legalism. 

There  were  circumstances,  however,  that  lent  a 
certain  colour  to  this  calumny.  The  circumcision  of 
Timothy,  for  instance,  might  be  thought  to  look  in  tiiis 
direction  (Acts  xvi.  i — 3).  And  Paul  valued  his 
Hebrew  birth.  He  loved  his  Jewish  brethren  more 
than  his  own  salvation  (Rom.  ix.  I — 5  ;  xi.  l).  There 
was  nothing   of  the  revolutionary   or  the  inconoclast 


320  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATJANS. 

about  him.  Personally  he  preferred  to  conform  to  the 
ancient  usages,  when  doing  so  did  not  compromise  the 
honour  of  Christ  (Acts  xviii.  i8;  xxi.  17 — 26).  It  was 
false  that  he  ''taught  the  Jews  not  to  circumcise  their 
children,  nor  to  walk  by  the  customs"  (Acts  xxi.  20 — 26). 
He  did  teach  them  that  these  things  were  "of  no  avail 
in  Christ  Jesus ; "  that  they  were  in  no  sense  necessary 
to  salvation  ;  and  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  will  of 
Christ  to  impose  them  upon  Gentiles.  But  it  was 
no  part  of  his  business  to  alter  the  social  customs  of 
his  people,  or  to  bid  them  renounce  the  glories  of  their 
past.  While  he  insists  that  "  there  is  no  difference  " 
between  Jew  and  Gentile  in  their  need  of  the  gospel 
and  their  rights  in  it,  he  still  claims  for  the  Jew  the 
first  place  in  the  order  of  its  manifestation. 

This  was  an  entirely  different  thing  from  "  preaching 
circumcision "  in  the  legalist  sense,  from  heralding 
(Krjpuaj-co  :  ver.  1 1)  and  crying  up  the  Jewish  ordinance, 
and  making  it  a  religious  duty.  This  difference  the 
Circumcisionists  affected  not  to  understand.  Some  of 
Paul's  critics  will  not  understand  it  even  now.  They 
argue  that  the  Apostle's  hostility  to  Judaism  in  this 
Epistle  discredits  the  narrative  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  inasmuch  as  the  latter  relates  several  instances 
of  Jewish  conformity  on  his  part.  What  pragmatical 
narrowness  is  this  1  Paul's  adversaries  said,  "  He 
derides  Judaism  amongst  you  Gentiles,  who  know 
nothing  of  his  antecedents,  or  of  his  practice  in  other 
places.  But  when  he  pleases,  this  liberal  Paul  will  be 
as  zealous  for  circumcision  as  any  of  us.  Indeed  he 
beasts  of  his  skill  in  '  becoming  all  things  to  all  men ; ' 
he  trims  his  sail  to  every  breeze.  In  Galatia  he  is  all 
breadth  and  tolerance;  he  talks  about  our  'liberty 
v\  hich  we  have  in  Christ  Jesus  ; '  he  is  ready  to  '  become 


V.7-I2.]       THE  lllXDEKERS  AM)    TROUBLEKS.  321 

as  you  are;'  no  one  would  imagine  he  had  ever  been 
a  Jew.  In  Jiidca  he  makes  a  point  of  being  strictly 
orthodox,  and  is  indignant  if  any  one  questions  his 
devotion  to  the  Law." 

Paul's  position  was  a  delicate  one,  and  open  to  mis- 
representation. Men  of  party  insist  on  this  or  that 
external  custom  as  the  badge  of  their  own  side ; 
they  have  their  party-colours  and  their  uniform.  Men 
of  principle  adopt  or  lay  aside  such  usages  with  a 
freedom  which  scandalizes  the  partisan.  What  right, 
he  says,  has  any  one  to  wear  our  colours,  to  pronounce 
our  shibboleth,  if  he  is  not  one  of  ourselves  ?  If  the 
man  will  not  be  with  us,  let  him  be  against  us.  Had 
Paul  renounced  his  circumcision  and  declared  himself 
a  Gentile  out  and  out,  the  Judaists  might  have  under- 
stood him.  Had  he  said.  Circumcision  is-evil^  they  could 
have  endured  it  better ;  but  to  preach  that  Circumcision 
is  nothing,  to  reduce  this  all-important  rite  to  insignifi- 
cance, vexed  them  beyond  measure.  It  was  in  their 
eyes  plain  proof  of  dishonesty.  They  tell  the  Galatians 
that  Paul  is  playing  a  double  part,  that  his  resistance 
to  their  circumcision  is  interested  and  insincere. 

The  charge  is  identical  with  that  of  *^  man-pleasing  " 
which  the  Apostle  repelled  in  ch.  i.  10  (see  Chapter  III). 
The  emphatic  "  still "  of  that  passage  recurs  twice  in 
this,  bearing  the  same  meaning  as  it  docs  there.  Its 
force  is  not  temporal^  as  though  the  Apostle  were 
thinking  of  a  former  time  when  he  did  "  preach  circum- 
cision : "  no  such  reference  appears  in  the  context,  and 
these  terms  are  inappropriate  to  his  pre-Christian  career. 
The  particle  points  a  logical  contrast,  as  e.g.  in  Rom. 
iii.  7;  ix.  19:  "If  I  still  (notwithstanding  my  pro- 
fessions as  a  Gentile  apostle)  preach  circumcision,  why 
am   I   still   (notwithstanding  my   so    preaching)  perse- 

21 


322  THE  EFISTLE    TO    THE   GALATJANS. 

ciited  ?"  Had  Paul  been  known  by  the  Jews  to  be 
in  other  places  a  promoter  of  circumcision,  they  would 
have  treated  him  very  differently.  He  could  not  then 
have  been,  as  the  Galatians  knew  him  everywhere  to 
be,  **  in  perils  from  his  fellow-countrymen." 

The  rancour  of  the  Legalists  was  sufficient  proof  of 
Paul's  sincerity.  They  were  themselves  guilty  of  the 
baseness  with  which  they  taxed  him.  It  was  in  order 
to  escape  the  reproach  of  the  cross  (ver.  ii),  to  atone 
for  their  belief  in  the  Nazarene,  that  they  persuaded 
Gentile  Christians  to  be  circumcised  (ch.  vi.  II,  12). 
They  were  the  man-pleasers.  The  Judaizers  knew 
perfectly  well  that  the  Apostle's  observance  of  Jewish 
usage  was  no  endorsement  of  their  principles.  The 
print  of  the  Jewish  scourge  upon  his  back  attested  his 
loyalty  to  Gentile  Christendom  (ch.  vi.  I/;  2  Cor.  xi. 
24).  A  further  consequence  would  have  ensued  from 
the  duplicity  imputed  to  Paul,  which  he  resents  even 
more  warmly  :  '^  Then,"  he  says,  "  if  I  preach  circum- 
cision, the  offence  of  the  cross  is  done  away  !  "  He  is 
charged  with  treason  against  the  cross  of  Christ.  He 
has  betrayed  the  one  thing  in  which  he  glories  (ch.  vi.  1 4), 
to  which  the  service  of  his  life  was  consecrated  !  For 
the  doctrine  of  the  cross  was  at  an  end  if  the  legal 
ritual  were  re-established  and  men  were  taught  to  trust 
in  the  saving  efficacy  of  circumcision — above  all,  if  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  had  preached  this  doctrine  ! 
The  Legalists  imputed  to  him  the  very  last  thing  of 
which  he  was  capable.  This  was  in  fact  the  error  into 
which  Peter  had  weakly  fallen  at  Antioch.  The  Jewish 
Apostle  had  then  acted  as  though  "  Christ  died  in  vain  " 
(ch.  ii.  21).  For  himself  Paul  indignantly  denies  that 
his  conduct  bore  any  such  construction. 

But  he  says,  " ///^  scandal  of  the  cross  "—that  scan- 


V.7-I2.]       THE  lUNDERERS  AND    TKOUBLEKS.  323 


dalous,  ofTcnsivc  cross,  the  stumbling-block  of  Jewish 
pride  (i  Cor.  i.  23).  The  death  of  Christ  was  not  only 
revolting  in  its  form  to  Jewish  sentiment;*  it  was  a 
fatal  event  for  Judaism  itself.  It  imported  the  end  of 
the  Mosaic  economy.  The  Church  at  Jerusalem  had 
not  yet  fully  grasped  this  fact ;  they  sought,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  live  on  good  terms  with  their  non-Christian 
Jewish  brethren,  and  admitted  perhaps  too  easily  into 
their  fellowship  men  who  cared  more  for  Judaism  than 
for  Christ  and  His  cross.  For  them  also  the  fmal 
rupture  was  approaching,  when  they  had  to  "  go  forth 
\mto  Jesus  without  the  camp."  Paul  had  seen  from 
the  first  that  the  breach  was  irreparable.  He  deter- 
mined to  keep  his  Gentile  Churches  free  from  Judaic 
entanglements.  In  his  view,  Calvary  was  the  terminus 
of  Mosaism. 

This  was  true  historically.  The  crime  of  national 
Judaism  in  slaying  its  Messiah  was  capital.  Its  spiritual 
blindness  and  its  moral  failure  had  received  the  most 
signal  proof.  The  congregation  of  Israel  had  become 
a  synagogue  of  Satan.  And  these  were  "  the  chosen 
people,"  the  world's  elite,  who  "  crucified  the  Lord  of 
glory  1 "  Mankind  had  done  this  thing.  The  world 
has  "  both  seen  and  hated  both  Him  and  the  Father." 
Now  to  set  up  circumcision  again,  or  any  kind  of 
human  effort  or  performance,  as  a  ground  of  justifica- 
tion before  God,  is  to  ignore  this  judgement ;  it  is  to 
make  void  the  sentence  which  the  cross  of  Christ  has 
passed  upon  all  *'  works  of  righteousness  which  we 
have  done."  This  teaching  sorely  offends  moralists 
and  ceremonialists,  of  whatever  age  or  school ;  it  is 
"  the  offence  of  the  cross." 


♦  Comp.  Chapter  XII,  pp.  193—4. 


324  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

And  further,  as  matter  of  Divine  appointment  the 
sacrifice  of  Calvary  put  an  end  to  Jewish  ordinances. 
Their  significance  was  gone.  The  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  developes  this  consequence  at  length  in  other 
directions.  For  himself  the  Apostle  views  it  from  a 
single  and  very  definite  standpoint.  The  Law,  he  says, 
had  brought  on  men  a  curse ;  it  stimulated  sin  to  its 
worst  developments  (ch.  iii.  lO,  19).  Christ's  death 
under  this  curse  has  expiated  and  removed  it  for  us 
(ch.  iii.  13).  His  atonement  met  man's  guilt  in  its 
culmination.  The  Law  had  not  prevented — nay,  it  gave 
occasion  to  the  crime  ;  it  necessitated,  but  could  not 
provide  expiation,  which  was  supplied  ''outside  the 
law"  (Rom.  iii.  21  :  %co/)t9  vojiov).  The  **  offence  "  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  cross  lay  just  here.  It  reconciled 
man  with  God  on  an  extra-legal  footing.  It  provided 
a  new  ground  of  justification  and  pronounced  the  old 
worthless.  It  fixed  the  mark  of  moral  impotence  and 
rejection  upon  the  system  to  which  the  Jewish  nature 
clung  with  passionate  pride.  To  preach  the  cross  was 
to  declare  legalism  abolished  :  to  preach  circumcision 
was  to  declare  the  cross  and  its  offence  abolished. 

This  dilemma  the  Circumcisionists  would  fain  escape. 
They  fought  shy  of  Calvary.  Like  some  later  moralists, 
they  did  not  see  why  the  cross  should  be  always 
pushed  to  the  front,  and  its  offence  forced  upon  the  world. 
Surely  there  was  in  the  wide  range  of  Chrisiian  truth 
abundance  of  other  profitable  topics  to  discuss,  without 
wounding  Jewish  susceptibilities  in  this  way.  But 
this  endeavour  of  theirs  is  just  what  Paul  is  determined 
to  frustrate.  He  confronts  Judaism  at  every  turn  with 
that  dreadful  cross.  He  insists  that  it  shall  be  realised 
in  its  horror  and  its  shame,  that  men  shall  feel  the 
tremendous  shock  which  it  gives  to  the  moral  conceit, 


^.7-12.]       THE   HINDEKERS  AND    TKOUliLE.'xS.  :2c 


j-fj 


the  self-justifying  spirit  of  human  nature,  which  in  the 
Jew  of  this  period  had  reached  its  extreme  point.  "  If 
law  could  save,  if  the  world  were  not  guilty  before  God," 
he  reiterates,  '*  why  that  death  of  the  cross  ?  God 
hath  set  Him  forth  a  propitiation!'  And  whoso  accepts 
Jesus  Christ  must  accept  Him  crucified,  with  all  the 
offence  and  humiliation  that  the  fact  involves. 

In  later  days  the  death  of  Christ  has  been  made  void 
in  other  ways.  It  is  veiled  in  the  steam  of  our  incense. 
It  is  invested  with  the  halo  of  a  sensuous  glorification. 
The  cross  has  been  for  many  turned  into  an  artistic 
symbol,  a  beautiful  idol,  festooned  with  garlands, 
draped  in  poetry,  but  robbed  of  its  spiritual  meaning, 
its  power  to  humble  and  to  save.  Let  men  see  it  "  openly 
set  forth,"  in  its  naked  terror  and  majesty,  that  they 
may  know  what  they  are  and  what  their  sins  have  done. 

We  rely  on  birth  and  good  breeding,  on  art  and 
education  as  instruments  of  moral  progress.  Improved 
social  arrangements,  a  higher  environment,  these,  we 
think,  will  elevate  the  race.  Within  their  limits  these 
forces  are  invaluable ;  they  are  ordained  of  God.  But 
they  are  only  law  at  the  best.  When  they  have  done 
their  utmost,  they  leave  man  still  unsaved — proud, 
selfish,  unclean,  miserable.  To  rest  human  salvation 
on  self-improvement  and  social  reform,  is  legalism  over 
again.  To  civilise  is  not  to  regenerate.  These 
methods  were  tried  in  Mosaism,  under  circumstances 
in  many  respects  highly  favourable.  "  Tlie  scandal 
of  the  cross"  w^as  the  result.  Education  and  social 
discipline  may  produce  a  Pharisee,  nothing  higher. 
Legislation  and  environment  wurk  from  the  outside. 
They  cannot  touch  the  essential  human  heart.  Nothing 
has  ever  done  this  like  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
who  "  makes  it  of  none  effect,"  wliethcr  in  the  name 


326  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

of  Jewish  tradition  or  of  modern  progress,  takes  away 
the  one  practicable  hope  of  the  moral  regeneration  of 
mankind, 

III.  We  are  now  in  a  position  to  estimate  more 
precisely  the  character  and  motives  of  the  Judaistic 
party,  the  hinderers  and  troublers  of  this  Epistle. 

In  the  first  place,  it  appears  that  the}'  had  entered 
the  Galatian  communities  from  without.  The  fact  that 
they  are  called  h'oublers  (disturbers)  of  itself  suggests 
this  (ver.  lO ;  ch.  i.  7).  They  came  with  a  professed 
"gospel,"  as  messengers  bringing  new  tidings;  the 
Apostle  compares  them  to  himself,  the  first  Galatian 
evangelist,  "or  an  angel  from  heaven"  (ch.  i.  8,  9). 
He  glances  at  them  in  his  reference  to  "  false  brethren  '* 
at  an  earlier  time  "  brought  into  (the  Gentile  Church) 
unawares"  (ch.  ii.  4).  These  m.en  are  "courting"  the 
favour  of  Paul's  Galatian  disciples,  endeavouring  to 
gain  them  over  in  his  absence  (ch.  iv.  17,  18).  They 
have  made  misleading  statements  respecting  his  early 
career  and  relations  to  the  Church,  which  he  is  at 
pains  to  correct.  They  professed  to  represent  the 
views  of  the  Pillars  at  Jerusalem,  and  quoted  their 
authority  against  the  Apostle  Paul. 

From  these  considerations  we  infer  that  "  the 
troublers "  were  Judaistic  emissaries  from  Palestine. 
The  second  Epistle  to  Corinth,  contemporaneous  with 
this  letter,  reveals  the  existence  of  a  similar  propaganda 
in  the  Greek  capital  at  the  same  period.  Paul  had 
given  the  Galatians  warning  on  the  subject  at  his  last 
V  isit  (ch.  i.  9).  There  were  already,  w'e  should  suppose, 
in  the  Galatian  societies,  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Judaizers,  Jewish  believers  in  Christ  of  legalistic 
tendencies,  prepared  to  welcome  and  support  the  new 
leacher.s.     But  it  was  the  coming  of  these  agitators  from 


V.7-I2.]       riiE   HINDER EKS  AND    TROUBLE KS.  327 

without  that  threw  the  Churches  of  Galatia  into  such 
a  fermeiit,  and  brought  about  the  situation  disclosed  in 
this  Epistle. 

The  allusion  made  in  chap.  ii.  12  to  "certain  from 
James,"*  taken  in  connection  with  other  circumstances, 
points,  as  we  think,  to  the  outbreak  of  a  systematic 
agitation  against  the  Apostle  Paul,  which  was  carried 
(^1  during  his  third  missionary  tour,  and  drew  from 
liim  the  great  evangelical  Epistles  of  this  epoch.  This 
anti-Pauline  movement  emanated  from  Jerusalem  and 
pretended  to  official  sanction.  Set  on  foot  at  the  time 
of  the  collision  with  Peter  at  Antioch,  the  conflict  is 
now  in  full  progress.  The  Apostle's  denunciation  of 
his  opponents  is  unsparing.  They  "  hinder "  the 
Galatians  ''from  obeying  truth"  (ver.  7);  they  entice 
them  from  the  path  in  which  they  had  bravely  set  out, 
and  are  robbing  them  of  their  heritage  in  Christ.  It 
was  a  false,  a  perverted  gospel  that  they  taught  (ch.  i. 
7).  They  cast  on  their  hearers  an  envious  spell  which 
drew  them  away  from  the  cross  and  its  salvation  (ch. 
ii.  21  ;  iii.  i).  Not  truth,  but  self-interest  and  party- 
ends  were  the  objects  they  pursued  (ch.  iv.  17;  vi. 
12,  13).  Their  "persuasion"  was  assuredly  not  of 
God,  "  who  had  called "  the  Galatians  through  the 
Apostle's  voice.  If  God  had  sent  Paul  amongst  them, 
as  the  Galatians  had  good  reason  to  know,  clearly  He 
had  not  sent  these  men,  with  their  "other  gospel." 

The  vitiating  "leaven"  at  work  in  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  Galatians,  if  not  arrested,  would  soon  "  leaven  the 
whole  lump."  The  Apostle  applies  to  the  Judaistic 
doctrine  the  same  figure  under  which  he  described  the 


♦  Compare  Chapter  IX,  pp.  131  —4.  We  refer  this  occurrence  lo  the 
interval  between  the  second  and  third  of  I'aiil  i  uxissioiiary  joonieys 
(Acts  xviii.  22),  A.D.  54. 


328  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATJANS. 

taint  of  immorality  found  in  the  Church  of  Corinth 
(i  Cor.  V.  6 — 8).  So  zealous  and  unscrupulous,  so 
deadly  in  its  effect  on  evangelical  faith  and  life  was  the 
spirit  of  Jewish  legalism.  The  Apostle  trusts  that  his 
Galatians  will  after  all  escape  from  this  fatal  infection, 
that  they  will  leave  "  the  troublers  "  alone  to  "  bear  the 
judgement"  which  must  fall  upon  them  (ver.  lo).  The 
Lord  is  the  Keeper,  and  the  Avenger  of  His  Church. 
No  one,  "whosoever  he  be/'  will  injure  it  with  impunity. 
Let  the  man  that  makes  mischief  in  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  take  care  what  he  is  about.  The  tempted 
may  escape ;  sins  of  ignorance  and  weakness  can  be 
forgiven.     But  woe  unto  the  tempter  I 

Against  the  wilful  perverters  of  the  gospel  the 
Apostle  at  the  outset  delivered  his  anathema.  For 
these  Circumcisionists  in  particular  he  has  one  further 
wish  to  express.  It  is  a  grim  sort  of  suggestion,  to 
be  read  rather  by  way  of  sarcasm  than  in  the  strict 
letter  of  fulfilment.  The  devotees  of  circumcision,  he 
means  to  say,  might  as  well  go  a  step  farther.  If  the 
physical  mark  of  Judaism,  the  mere  surgical  act,  is  so 
salutary,  why  not  '^cut  off"  the  member  altogether, 
like  the  emasculated  priests  of  Cybele?  (ver.  12).'"'  This 
mutilation  belonged  to  the  worship  of  the  great  heathen 
goddess  of  Asia  Minor,  and  was  associated  with  her 
debasing  cultus.  Moreover  it  excluded  its  victim  from 
a  place  in  the  congregation  of  Israel  (Deut.  xxiii.  i). 

*  The  rendering  of  the  R.V.  marfnin  is  that  of  all  the  Greek  inter- 
preters, and  of  Meyer,  Lightfoot,  Beet,  and  the  strict  grammatical 
commentators  amongst  the  moderns.  The  form  and  usage  of  the  verb 
do  not  allow  of  any  other.  Apart  from  its  unseemliness,  the  expression 
is  powerfully  appropriate.  This  condemnation  of  the  Old-Testament 
.sacrament  is  not  more  severe  than  the  language  of  Isa.  Ixvi.  3  :  '*  He 
that  slaughtereth  an  ox  is  a  man-slayer,  he  that  bringeth  a  meal-offering 
— it  is  swine's  blood.'" 


V.7-I2.]       THE  HINDER ERS  AND    TROUBLE RS.  329 

This  mockery,  though  not  to  be  judged  by  modern 
sentiment,  in  any  case  went  to  the  verge  of  what 
charity  and  decency  permit.  It  breathes  a  burning 
contempt  for  the  Judaizing  policy.  It  shows  how 
utterly  circumcision  had  lost  its  sacredness  for  the 
Apostle.  Its  spiritual  import  being  gone,  it  was  now 
a  mere  "concision"  (Phil.  iii.  2),  a  cutting  of  the 
body — nothing  more. 

Such  language  was  well  calculated  to  disgust  Gentile 
Christians  with  the  rite  of  circumcision.  It  helps  to 
account  for  the  implacable  hatred  with  which  Paul  was 
regarded  by  orthodox  Jews.  It  accords  with  what 
he  intimated  in  ch.  iv.  9,  to  the  effect  that  Jewish 
conformity  was  for  the  Gentiles  in  effect  heathenish. 
Apart  from  its  relation  to  the  obsolete  Mosaic  covenant, 
circumcision  was  in  itself  no  holier  than  the  deformities 
inflicted  by  Paganism  on  its  votaries. 

The  Judaizers  are  finally  described,  not  merely  as 
"troublers"  and  "hinderers,"  but  as  "those  that 
unsettle  you" — or  more  strongly  still,  ^^  overthrow  you." 
The  Greek  word  {avaaiaTkw)  occurs  in  Acts  xvii.  6, 
xxi.  38,  where  it  is  rendered,  tarn  upside  down,  stir  to 
sedition.  These  men  were  carrying  on  a  treasonable 
agitation.  False  themselves  to  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
they  incited  the  Galatians  to  belie  their  Christian 
professions,  to  betray  the  cause  of  Gentile  liberty,  and 
to  desert  their  own  Apostle.  They  deserved  to  suffc  r 
some  degrading  punishment.  "  Full "  as  they  were 
"  of  subtlety  and  mischief,  perverting  the  right  ways 
of  the  Lord,"  Paul  did  well  to  denounce  them  and 
to  turn  their  zeal  for  circumcision  to  derisive  scorn. 


THE  ETHICAL  APPLICATION. 
Chapter  v.  13 — vi.  jo. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

THE  PERILS  OF  LIBERTY, 

"  For  ye,  brethren,  were  called  for  freedom  ;  only  «j^  not  your  freedom 
fcr  an  occasion  to  the  flesh,  but  through  love  be  servants  one  to  another. 
For  the  whole  law  is  fulfilled  in  one  word,  even  in  this;  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbour  as  thyself.  But  if  ye  bite  and  devour  one  another,  take 
heed  that  ye  be  not  consumed  one  of  another." — Gal.  v.  13 — 15. 

OUR  analysis  has  drawn  a  strong  line  across  the 
middle  of  this  chapter.  At  ver.  13  the  Apostle 
turns  his  mind  in  the  ethical  direction.  Me  has  dis- 
missed "  the  troublers  "  with  contempt  in  vcr.  12  ;  and 
until  the  close  of  the  Epistle  does  not  mention  them 
again  ;  he  addresses  his  readers  on  topics  in  which  they 
are  left  out  of  view.  But  this  third,  ethical  section  of 
the  letter  is  still  continuous  with  its  polemical  and 
doctrinal  argument. 

It  applies  the  maxim  of  ver.  6,  "  Faith  works  through 
love";  it  reminds  the  Galatians  how  they  had  "re- 
ceived the  Spirit  of  God  "  (ch.  iii.  2,  3 ;  iv.  6).  The 
rancours  and  jealousies  opposed  to  love,  the  carnal 
mind  that  resists  the  Spirit — these  are  the  objects  of 
Paul's  dehortations.  The  moral  disorders  which  the 
Apostle  seeks  to  correct  arose  largely  out  of  the  mischief 
caused  by  the  Judaizers.  And  his  exhortations  to  love 
and  good  works  are  themselves  indirectly  polemical. 
They  vindicate  Paul's  gospel  from  the  charge  of  anti- 
nomianism,  while  they  guard  Christians   from   giving 


334  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

occasion  to  the  charge.  They  protect  from  exaggera- 
tion and  abuse  the  Hberty  already  defended  from 
legalistic  encroachments.  The  more  precious  and 
sacred  is  the  freedom  of  Gentile  believers,  the  more 
on  the  one  hand  do  those  deserve  punishment  who 
would  defraud  them  of  it ;  and  the  more  earnestly 
must  they  on  their  part  guard  this  treasure  from  mis- 
use and  dishonour.  In  this  sense  ver.  13a  stands  be- 
tween the  sentence  against  the  Circumcisionists  in  ver. 
12  and  the  appeal  to  the  Galatians  that  follows.  It 
repeats  the  proclamation  of  freedom  made  in  ver.  I, 
making  it  the  ground  at  once  of  the  judgement  pro- 
nounced against  the  foes  of  freedom  and  the  admoni- 
tion addressed  to  its  possessors.  ^^  For  you  were  called 
(summoned  by  God  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  His  Son) 
with  a  view  to  liberty — not  to  legal  bondage ;  nor,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  you  might  run  into  licence  and 
give  the  reins  to  self-will  and  appetite — not  liberty  for 
an  occasion  to  the  flesh. ^^ 

I.  Here  lies  the  danger  of  liberty^  especially  when 
conferred  on  a  young,  untrained  nature,  and  in  a  newly 
emancipated  community. 

Freedom  is  a  priceless  boon;  but  it  is  a  grave  re- 
sponsibility. It  has  its  temptations,  as  well  as  its  joys 
and  dignities.  The  Apostle  has  spoken  at  length  of 
the  latter :  it  is  the  former  that  he  has  now  to  urge. 
Keep  your  liberties,  he  seems  to  say ;  for  Christ's  sake 
and  for  truth's  sake  hold  them  fast,  guard  them  well. 
You  are  God's  regenerated  sons.  Never  forego  your 
high  calling.  God  is  on  your  side ;  and  those  who 
assail  you  shall  feel  the  weight  of  His  displeasure. 
Yes,  "  stand  fast "  in  the  liberty  wherewith  '*  Christ 
made  you  free."  But  take  care  how  you  employ  your 
freedom ;  "  only  use  not  liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the 


V.I3-I5]  THE   I'EKILS   OF  LlliliKTY.  333 


flesh."  This  significant  only  turns  the  other  side  of 
the  medal,  and  bids  us  read  the  legend  on  its  reverse 
front.  On  the  obverse  we  have  found  it  written,  "  The 
Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  Mis"  (2  Tim.  ii.  19;  comp. 
Gal.  iv.  6,  9).  This  is  the  side  of  privikire  and  of 
grace,  the  spiritual  side  of  the  Christian  life.  On  the 
reverse  it  bears  the  motto,  "  Let  every  one  that  namcth 
the  name  of  the  Lord  depa't  from  iniquity."  This  is 
the  second,  the  ethical  side  of  our  calling,  the  side  of 
duty,  to  which  we  have  now  to  turn. 

The  man,  or  the  nation  that  has  won  its  freedom,  has 
won  but  half  the  battle.  It  has  conquered  external 
foes ;  it  has  still  to  prevail  over  itself.  And  this  is  the 
harder  task.  Men  clamour  for  liberty,  when  they  mean 
hcence ;  what  they  seek  is  the  liberty  of  the  flesh,  not 
of  the  Spirit,  freedom  to  indulge  their  lusts  and  to 
trample  on  the  rights  of  others,  the  freedom  of  outlaws 
and  brigands.  The  natural  man  defines  freedom  as  the 
power  to  do  as  he  likes ;  not  the  right  of  self-regula- 
tion, but  the  absence  of  regulation  is"  what  he  desires. 
And  this  is  just  what  the  Spirit  of  God  wifl  never 
allow  (ver.  17).  When  such  a  man  has  thrown  off 
outward  constraint  and  the  dread  of  punishment,  there 
is  no  inward  law  to  take  its  place.  It  is  his  greed,  his 
passion,  his  pride  and  ambition  that  call  for  freedom  ; 
not  his  conscience.  And  to  all  such  libertarians  our 
Saviour  says,  '^  He  that  committeth  sin  is  the  slave  of 
sin."  No  tyrant  is  so  vile,  so  insatiable  as  our  own 
self-indulged  sin.  A  pitiable  triumph,  for  a  man  to 
have  secured  his  religious  liberty  only  to  become  the 
thrall  of  his  vices  ! 

It  is  possible  that  some  men  accepted  the  gospel 
under  the  delusion  that  it  afforded  a  shelter  for  sin. 
The  sensualist,  detern  d  from   his  indulgences  by  fear 

1 


336  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

of  the  Law,  joined  in  Paul's  campaign  against  it,  imagin- 
ing that  Grace  would  give  him  larger  freedom.  If 
^^  where  sin  abounded  grace  did  superabound/'  he 
would  say  in  his  heart,  Why  not  sin  the  more,  so  that 
grace  might  have  a  greater  victory  ?  This  is  no  fanciful 
inference.  Hypocrisy  has  learned  to  wear  the  garb  of 
evangelical  zeal ;  and  teachers  of  the  gospel  have  not 
always  guarded  sufficiently  against  this  shocking  per- 
version. Even  the  man  whose  heart  has  been  truly 
touched  and  changed  by  Divine  grace,  when  the  fresh- 
ness of  his  first  love  to  Christ  has  passed  away  and 
temptation  renews  its  assaults,  is  liable  to  this  decep- 
tion. He  may  begin  to  think  that  sin  is  less  perilous, 
since  forgiveness  was  so  easily  obtained.  He  may 
presume  that  as  a  son  of  God,  sealed  by  the  Spirit  of 
adoption,  he  will  not  be  allowed  to  fall,  even  though  he 
stumble.  He  is  one  of  "  God's  elect "  ;  what  "  shall 
separate  him  "  from  the  Divine  love  in  Christ  ?  In  this 
assurance  he  holds  a  talisman  that  secures  his  safety. 
What  need  to  "watch  and  pray  lest  he  enter  into  temp- 
tation," when  the  Lord  is  his  keeper?  He  is  God's 
enfranchised  son  ;  '^  all  things  are  lawful "  to  him  ; 
"  things  present "  as  well  as  ''  things  to  come  "  are  his 
in  Christ.  By  such  reasonings  his  liberty  is  turned 
into  an  occasion  to  the  flesh.  And  men  who  before 
they  boasted  themselves  sons  of  God  were  restrained 
by  the  spirit  of  bondage  and  fear,  have  found  in  this 
assurance  the  occasion,  the  "starting-point"  {a^opybi]) 
for  a  more  shameless  course  of  evil. 

In  the  view  of  Legalism,  this  is  the  natural  outcome 
of  Pauline  teaching.  From  the  first  it  has  been  charged 
with  fostering  lawlessness.  In  the  Lutheran  Reforma- 
tion Rome  pointed  to  the  Antinomians,  and  moralists 
of  our  own  day  speak  cf  "canting  Evangelicals,"  just 


V.  13-15.]  THE  PERILS  OE  UnERTY.  337 

as  the  Judaists  alleged  the  existence  of  imnioral  Paiilin- 
ists,  whose  conduct,  they  declared,  was  the  proper  fruit 
of  the  preaching  of  emancipation  from  the  Law.  These, 
they  would  say  to  the  Apostle,  are  your  spiritual  chil- 
dren ;  they  do  but  carry  your  doctrine  to  its  legitimate 
issue.  This  reproach  the  gospel  has  always  had  to 
bear ;  there  have  been  those,  alas,  amongst  its  pro- 
fessors whose  behaviour  has  given  it  plausibility. 
Sensualists  will  "  turn  the  grace  of  our  God  into 
lasciviousness ;"  swine  will  trample  under  their  feet 
the  pure  pearls  of  the  gospel.  But  they  are  pure  and 
precious  none  the  less. 

This  possibility  is,  however,  a  reason  for  the  utmost 
watchfulness  in  those  who  are  stewards  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  gospel.  They  must  be  careful,  like  Paul, 
to  make  it  abundantly  clear  that  they  ** establish"  and 
do  not  "make  void  law  through  faith"  (Rom.  iii.  31). 
There  is  an  evangelical  Ethics,  as  well  as  an  evange- 
lical Dogmatics.  The  ethics  of  the  Gospel  have  been 
too  little  studied  and  applied.  Hence  much  of  the 
confessed  failure  of  evangelical  Churches  in  preserving 
and  building  up  the  converts  that  they  win. 

II.  Faith  in  Christ  gives  in  truth  a  new  efficacy  to  the 
moral  law.  For  it  works  through  love;  and  love  fulfils 
all  laws  in  one  (vv.  13^,  14).  Where  faith  has  this 
operation,  liberty  is  safe ;  not  otherwise.  Love's  slaves 
are  the  trite  freemen. 

The  legalist  practically  takes  the  same  view  of  human 
nature  as  the  sensualist.  He  knows  nothing  of  "  the 
desire  of  the  Spirit "  arrayed  against  that  of  the  flesh 
(ver.  17),  nothing  of  the  mastery  over  the  heart  that 
belongs  to  the  love  of  Christ.  In  his  analysis  the  soul 
consists  of  so  many  desires,  each  blindly  seeking  its 
own  gratification,    which   must    be    drilled    into   order 

22 


338  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


under  external  pressure,  by  an  intelligent  application 
of  law.  Modern  Utilitarians  agree  with  the  ancient 
Judaists  in  their  ethical  philosophy.  Fear  of  punish- 
ment, hope  of  reward,  the  influence  of  the  social 
environment — these  are,  as  they  hold,  the  factors  which 
create  character  and  shape  our  moral  being.  "  Pain 
and  pleasure,"  they  tell  us,  ^'  are  the  masters  of  human 
life."  Without  the  faith  that  man  is  the  child  of  God, 
formed  in  His  image,  we  are  practically  shut  up  to  this 
suicidal  theory  of  morals.  Suicidal  we  say,  for  it  robs 
our  spiritual  being  of  everything  distinctive  in  it,  of  all 
that  raises  the  moral  above  the  natural ;  it  makes  duty 
and  personality  illusions. 

Judaism  is  a  proof  that  this  scheme  of  life  is  imprac- 
ticable. For  the  Pharisaic  system  which  produced  such 
deplorable  moral  results,  was  an  experiment  in  external 
ethics.  It  was  in  fact  the  application  of  a  highly  deve- 
loped and  elaborate  traditional  code  of  law,  enforced  by 
the  strongest  outward  sanctions,  without  personal  loyalty 
to  the  Divine  Lawgiver.  In  the  national  conscience  of 
the  Jews  this  was  wanting.  Their  faith  in  God,  as  the 
Epistle  of  James  declares,  was  a  "  dead  "  faith,  a  bundle 
of  abstract  notions.  Loyalty  is  true  law-keeping.  And 
loyalty  springs  from  the  personal  relationship  of  the 
subject  and  the  law-making  power.  This  nexus  Christ- 
ian sonship  supplies,  in  its  purest  and  most  exalted 
form.  When  I  see  in  the  Lawgiver  my  Almighty 
Father,  when  the  law  has  become  incarnate  in  the 
person  of  my  Saviour,  my  heart's  King  and  Lord,  it 
wears  a  changed  aspect.  ^^  His  commandments  are  not 
grievous."  Duty,  required  by  Him,  is  honour  and 
delight.  No  abstract  law,  no  "  stream  of  tendency"  can 
command  the  homage  or  awaken  the  moral  energy  that 
is  inspired  by  ''the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord." 


«3-i5]  THE  rERILS  OF  LIBEKTY.  339 


Here  the  Apr  stle  traverses  antinomian  deductions 
from  his  doctrine  of  liberty.  In  the  Kpistle  to  the 
Romans  (ch.  vi.)  he  deals  at  length  with  the  theoretical 
objection  to  his  teaching  on  this  subject.  He  shows 
there  that  salvation  by  faith,  rightly  understood  and 
experienced,  renders  continuance  in  sin  impossible. 
For  faith  in  Christ  is  in  effect  the  union  of  the  soul  with 
Christ,  first  in  His  death,  and  then  consequently  in  I  lis 
risen  life,  wherein  He  lives  only  "to  God."  Nay, 
Christ  Himself  lives  in  the  believing  man  (Gal.  ii.  20). 
Instead  of  our  sinning  "  because  we  are  not  under  the 
law,  but  under  grace,"  this  is  precisely  the  reason  why 
we  need  not  and  must  not  sin.  Faith  joins  us  to  the 
risen  Christ,  whose  life  we  share — so  Paul  argues — and 
we  should  not  sin  any  more  than  He.  Here,  from  the 
practical  standpoint,  he  lays  it  down  that  faith  works 
by  love ;  and  love  casts  but  sin,  for  it  unites  all  laws  in 
itself  Faith  links  us  to  Christ  in  heaven  (Romans); 
faith  fills  us  with  His  love  on  earth  (Galatians).  So 
love,  marked  out  in  ver.  6  as  the  energy  of  faith,  now 
serves  as  the  guard  of  liberty.  Neither  legalist  nor 
law-breaker  understands  the  meaning  of  faith  in  Christ. 

At  this  point  Paul  throws  in  one  of  his  bold  para- 
doxes. He  has  been  contending  all  through  the  Epistle 
for  freedom,  bidding  his  readers  scorn  the  legal  yoke, 
breathing  into  them  his  own  contempt  for  the  pettiness 
of  Judaistic  ceremonial.  But  now  he  turns  round 
suddenly  and  bids  them  be  slaves :  "  but  let  love,"  he 
says,  "make  you  bondmen  to  each  other "  (ver.  13). 
Instead  of  breaking  bonds,  he  seeks  to  create  stronger 
bonds,  stronger  because  dearer.  Paul  preaches  no 
gospel  of  individualism,  of  egotistic  salvation-seeking. 
The  self-sacrifice  of  Christ  becomes  in  turn  a  principle 
of  sacrifice  in  those  who  receive  it.     Paul's  own  ideal 


340  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

is,  to  be  "  conformed  to  Mis  death  "  (Phil.  iii.  lo).  There 
is  nothing  anarchic  or  self-asserting  in  his  plea  for 
freedom.  He  opposes  the  law  of  Pharisaic  externalism 
in  the  interests  of  the  law  of  Christian  love.  The  yoke 
of  Judaism  must  be  broken,  its  bonds  cast  aside,  in 
order  to  give  free  play  to  ^*  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life 
in  Christ  Jesus."  Faith  transfers  authority  from  flesh 
to  spirit,  giving  it  a  surer  seat,  a  more  effective,  and  in 
reality  more  lawful  command  over  man's  nature.  It 
restores  the  normal  equipoise  of  the  soul.  Now  the 
Divine  law  is  written  on  ''  the  tablets  of  the  heart  " ; 
and  this  makes  it  far  more  sovereign  than  when  en- 
graved on  the  stone  slabs  of  Sinai.  Love  and  law  for 
the  believer  in  Christ  are  fused  into  one.  In  this  union 
law  loses  nothing  of  its  holy  severity ;  and  love  nothing 
of  its  tenderness.  United  they  constitute  the  Christian 
sense  of  duty,  whose  sternest  exactions  are  enforced  by 
gratitude  and  devotion. 

And  love  is  ever  conqueror.  To  it  toil  and  endurance 
that  mock  the  achievement  of  other  powers,  are  a  light 
thing.  Needing  neither  bribe  nor  threat,  love  labours, 
waits,  braves  a  thousand  dangers,  keeps  the  hands  busy, 
the  eye  keen  and  watchful,  the  feet  running  to  and  fro 
untired  through  the  longest  day.  There  is  no  industry, 
no  ingenuity  like  that  of  love.  Love  makes  the  mother 
the  slave  of  the  babe  at  her  breast,  and  wins  from  the 
friend  for  his  friend  service  that  no  compulsion  could 
exact,  rendered  in  pure  gladness  and  free-will.  Its 
power  alone  calls  forth  what  is  best  and  strongest  in 
us  all.  Love  is  mightier  than  death.  In  Jesus  Christ, 
love  has  "  laid  down  life  for  its  friends "  ;  the  fulness 
of  life  has  encountered  and  overcome  the  uttermost  of 
death.  Love  esteems  it  bondage  to  be  prevented,  liberty 
only  to  be  allowed  to  serve. 


V.  I3-»S]  ^'^i^  rLKILS  OF  LIBERTY.  341 


Without  love,  freedom  is  an  empty  boon.  It  brings 
no  ease,  no  joy  of  heart.  It  is  objectless  and  listless. 
Bereft  of  faith  and  love,  though  possessing  the  most 
perfect  independence,  the  soul  drifts  along  like  a  ship 
rudderless  and  mastcrless,  with  neither  haven  nor 
horizon.  Wordsworth,  in  his  Ode  to  Duty,  has  finely 
expressed  the  weariness  that  comes  of  such  liberty, 
unguided  by  an  inward  law  and  a  Divine  ideal : 

"  Me  this  unchartered  freedom  tires; 
I  feel  the  weight  of  chance  desires  : 
My  hopes  no  more  must  change  their  name; 

I  long  for  a  repose  that  ever  is  the  same.** 

But  on  the  other  hand, 

"  Serene  will  be  our  days  and  bright, 
And  happy  will  our  nature  be, 
"When  love  is  an  unerring  light, 
And  joy  its  own  security." 

This  "royal  law"  (Jam.  ii.  8)  blends  with  its  sove- 
reignty of  power  the  charm  of  simplicity.  "  The  whole 
law,"  says  the  Apostle,  "hath  been  fulfilled  in  one 
word — Love"  (ver.  14).  The  Master  said,  "1  came 
not  to  destroy  the  law,  but  to  fulfil."  The  key  to  His 
fulfilment  was  given  in  the  declaration  of  the  twofold 
command  of  love  to  God  and  to  our  neighbour.  "On 
these  two  hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets."  Hence 
•  the  Apostle's  phrase,  hath  been  fulfilled.  This  unifica- 
tion of  the  moral  code  is  accomplished.  Christ's  life 
and  death  have  given  to  this  truth  full  expression  and 
universal  currency.  Love's  fulfilment  of  law  stands 
before  us  a  positive  attainment,  an  incontestable  fact. 
Paul  does  not  speak  here,  as  in  Rom.  xiii.  9,  of  the 
comprehending,  the  "  summing  up  "  of  all  laws  in  one  ; 
but  of  the  bringing  of  law  to  its  completion,  its  realisa- 


342  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS, 


tion  and  consummation  in  the  love  of  Christ.  "O  how 
I  love  Thy  law,"  said  the  purer  spirit  of  the  Old 
Testament.  '*  Thy  love  is  my  law/'  says  the  true  spirit 
of  the  New. 

It  is  remarkable  that  this  supreme  principle  of 
Christian  ethics  is  first  enunciated  in  the  most  legal 
part  of  the  Old  Testament.  Leviticus  is  the  Book  of 
the  Priestly  Legislation.  It  is  chiefly  occupied  with 
ceremonial  and  civil  regulations.  Yet  in  the  midst  of 
the  legal  minutiae  is  set  this  sublime  and  simple  rule, 
than  which  Jesus  Christ  could  prescribe  nothing  more 
Divine  :  Thou  shall  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself  (Levit. 
xix.  1 8).  This  sentence  is  the  conclusion  of  a  series 
of  directions  (vv.  9 — 18)  forbidding  unneighbourly  con- 
duct, each  of  them  sealed  with  the  declaration,  *'I 
am  Jehovah."  This  brief  code  of  brotherly  love 
breathes  a  truly  Christian  spirit ;  it  is  a  beautiful  ex- 
pression of  "  the  law  of  kindness  "  that  is  on  the  lips 
and  in  the  heart  of  the  child  of  God.  We  find  in  the 
law-book  of  Mosaism,  side  by  side  with  elaborate  rules 
of  sacrificial  ritual  and  the  homeliest  details  touching 
the  life  of  a  rude  agricultural  people,  conceptions  of  God 
and  of  duty  of  surpassing  loftiness  and  purity,  such  as 
meet  us  in  the  religion  of  no  other  ancient  nation. 

The  law,  therefore,  opposed  and  cast  out  in  the  name 
of  faith,  is  brought  in  again  under  the  shield  of  love. 
"If  ye  love  Me,"  said  Jesus,  *'  keep  my  commandments.^* 
Love  reconciles  law  and  faith.  Law  by  itself  can  but 
prohibit  this  and  that  injury  to  one's  neighbour,  when 
they  are  likely  to  arise.  Love  excludes  the  doing  of 
any  injury ;  it  "  worketh  no  ill  to  its  neighbour,  therefore 
love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law"  (Rom.  xiii.  10).  That 
which  law  restrains  or  condemns  after  the  fact,  love 
renders  impossible   beforehand.     It  is  not  content  with 


V.  I3-IS-]  ^V/A   PERILS   OF  UniiKTY, 


343 


the  negative  prevention  of  wrong;  it  "  overcomes"  and 
displaces  "  evil  with  good." 

''What  law  could  not  do,"  with  all  its  multipli. d 
enactments  and  redoubled  threats,  faith  "working  by 
love"  has  accomplished  at  a  stroke.  "The  righteous- 
ness of  the  law  is  fulfilled  in  those  who  walk  not  after 
the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit"  (Rom.  viii.  3,  4).  Gen- 
tile Christians  have  been  raised  to  the  level  of  a 
righteousness  "  exceeding  that  of  scribes  and  phari- 
sees"  (Matt.  v.  20).  The  flesh  which  defied  law's 
terrors  and  evaded  its  control,  is  subdued  by  the  love 
of  Christ.  Law  created  the  need  of  salvation ;  it 
defined  its  conditions  and  the  direction  which  it  must 
take.  But  there  its  power  ceased.  It  could  not  change 
the  sinful  heart.  It  supplied  no  motive  adequate  to 
secure  obedience.  The  moralist  errs  in  substituting 
duty  for  love,  works  for  faith.  He  would  make  the 
rule  furnish  the  motive,  the  path  supply  strength  to 
walk  in  it.  The  distinction  of  the  gospel  is  that  it  is 
^^  the  pozver  of  God  unto  salvation,"  while  the  law  is 
"  weak  through  the  flesh." 

Paul  does  not  therefore  override  the  law  in  the 
interest  of  faith.  Quite  the  contrary,  he  establishes, 
he  magnifies  it.  His  theology  rests  on  the  idea  of 
Righteousness,  which  is  strictly  a  legal  conception. 
But  he  puts  the  law  in  its  proper  place.  He  secures 
for  it  the  alliance  of  love.  The  legalist,  desiring  to 
to  exalt  law,  in  reality  stultifies  it.  Striving  to  make 
it  omnipotent,  he  makes  it  impotent.  In  the  Apostle's 
teaching,  law  is  the  rule,  faith  the  spring  of  action. 
Law  marks  the  path,  love  gives  the  will  and  power  to 
follow  it.  Who  then  are  the  truest  friends  of  law — 
Legalists  or  Paulinists,  moralists  or  evangelicals  ? 

III.  Alas,  the  Galatians  at  the  present  moment  afford 


344  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

a  spectacle  far  different  from  the  ideal  which  Paul  has 
drawn.  Instead  of  "  serving  each  other  in  love,"  they 
are  "  biting  and  devouring  one  another."  The  Church 
is  in  danger  of  being  '^  consumed  "  by  their  jealousies 
and  quarrels  (ver.  15). 

These  Asiatic  Gauls  were  men  of  a  warm  tempera- 
ment, quick  to  resent  wrong  and  prone  to  imagine  it. 
The  dissensions  excited  by  the  Judaic  controversy  had 
excited  their  combative  temper  to  an  unusual  degree. 
*^  Biting "  describes  the  wounding  and  exasperating 
effect  of  the  manner  in  which  their  contentions  were 
carried  on  ;  "  devour "  warns  them  of  its  destructive- 
ness.  Taunts  were  hurled  across  the  field  of  debate ; 
vituperation  supplied  the  lack  of  argument.  Differences 
of  opinion  engendered  private  feuds  and  rankling  inju- 
ries. In  Corinth  the  spirit  of  discord  had  taken  a  fac- 
tious form.  It  arrayed  men  in  conflicting  parties,  with 
their  distinctive  watchwords  and  badges  and  sectional 
platforms.  In  these  Churches  it  bore  fruit  in  personal 
affronts  and  quarrels,  in  an  angry,  vindictive  temper, 
which  spread  through  the  Galatian  societies  and  broke 
out  in  every  possible  form  of  contention  (v.  20).  If 
this  state  of  things  continued,  the  Churches  of  Galatia 
would  cease  to  exist.  Their  liberty  would  end  in 
complete  disintegration. 

Like  some  other  communities,  the  Galatian  Christ- 
ians were  oscillating  between  despotism  and  anarchy ; 
they  had  not  attained  the  equilibrium  of  a  sober,  ordered 
liberty,  the  freedom  of  a  manly  self-control.  They  had 
not  sufficient  respect  either  for  their  own  or  for  each 
other's  rights.  Some  men  must  be  bridled  or  they  will 
"bite;"  they  must  wear  the  yoke  or  they  run  wild. 
They  are  incapable  of  being  a  law  unto  themselves. 
They  have  not  faith  enough  to  make  them  steadfast, 


V.  13-»S]  THE  PERILS  OF  LIBERTY.  345 


nor  love  cnoiigli  to  be  an  inward  guide,  nor  the  Spirit 
of  God  in  measure  sufficient  to  overcome  the  vanity 
and  self-indulgence  of  the  flesh.  But  the  Apostle  still 
hopes  to  see  his  Galatian  disciples  worthy  of  their 
calling  as  sons  of  God.  He  points  out  to  them  the 
narrow  but  sure  path  that  leads  between  the  desert 
of  legalism  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  gulf  of  anarchy 
and  licence  on  the  other. 

The  problem  of  the  nature  and  conditions  of  Christian 
liberty  occupies  the  Apostle's  mind  in  different  ways 
in  all  the  letters  of  this  period.  The  young  Churches 
of  the  Gentiles  were  in  the  gravest  peril.  They  had 
come  out  of  Egypt  to  enter  the  Promised  Land,  the 
heritage  of  the  sons  of  God.  The  Judaists  sought  to 
turn  them  aside  into  the  Sinaitic  wilderness  of  Mosaism  ; 
while  their  old  habits  and  associations  powerfully  tended 
to  draw  them  back  into  heathen  immorality.  Legalism 
and  licence  were  the  Scylla  and  Charybdis  on  either 
hand,  between  which  it  needed  the  most  firm  and 
skilful  pilotage  to  steer  the  bark  of  the  Church.  The 
helm  of  the  vessel  is  in  Paul's  hands.  And,  through 
the  grace  of  God,  he  did  not  fail  in  his  task.  It  is  in 
the  love  of  Christ  that  the  Apostle  found  his  guiding 
light.     "  Love,"  he  has  written,  *'  never  faileth." 

Love  is  the  liandmaid  of  faith,  and  the  firstborn  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  (vv.  6,  22).  Blending  with  the 
law,  love  refashions  it,  changing  it  into  its  own  image. 
Thus  moulded  and  transfigured,  law  is  no  longer  an 
exterior  yoke,  a  system  of  restraint  and  penalty ;  it 
becomes  an  inner,  sweet  constraint.  Upon  the  child 
of  God  it  acts  as  an  organic  and  formative  energy,  the 
principle  of  his  regenerated  being,  which  charges  with 
its   renovating  influence  all   the   springs  of  life.     Evil 


346  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 

is  met  no  longer  by  a  merely  outward  opposition,  but 
by  a  repugnance  proceeding  from  within.  *'  The  Spirit 
lusteth  against  the  flesh"  (v.  17).  The  law  of  the 
Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  becomes  the  law  of  the 
man's  new  nature.  God  known  and  loved  in  Christ 
is  the  central  object  of  his  life.  Within  the  Divine 
kingdom  so  created,  the  realm  of  love  and  of  the  Spirit, 
the  soul  henceforth  dwells ;  and  under  that  kingdom  it 
places  for  itself  all  other  souls,  loved  like  itself  in 
Christ, 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

CHRISTS  SPIRIT  AND  HUMAN  FLESH. 

[Fie  showeth  the  battell  of  thejlesh  and  the  Spirit ;  and  the  fruits  of 
them  both.     Heading  in  Genevan  Bible.] 

*'  But  I  say,  Walk  by  the  Spirit,  and  ye  shall  not  fulfil  the  lust  of  the 
flesh.  For  the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit  against 
the  flesh  ;  for  these  are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other  ;  that  ye  may  not 
do  the  things  that  ye  would.  But  if  ye  are  led  by  the  Spirit,  ye  are 
not  under  the  law.  .  .  .  And  they  that  are  of  Christ  Jesus  have  crucified 
the  flesh  with  the  passions  and  the  lusts  thereof.  If  we  live  by  the 
Spirit,  by  the  Spirit  let  us  also  walk.  Let  us  not  be  vainglorious, 
provoking  one  another,  envying  one  another." — Gal.  v.  16  —  26. 

LOVE  is  the  guard  of  Christian  freedom.  The  Holy 
Spirit  is  its  guide.  These  principles  accomplish 
what  the  law  could  never  do.  It  withheld  liberty,  and 
yet  did  not  give  purity.  The  Spirit  of  love  and  of 
sonship  bestows  both,  establishing  a  happy,  ordered 
freedom,  the  Hberty  of  the  sons  of  God. 

From  the  first  of  these  two  factors  of  Christian  ethics 
the  Apostle  passes  in  ver.  16  to  the  second.  He  con- 
ducts us  from  the  consequence  to  the  cause,  from  the 
human  aspect  of  spiritual  freedom  to  the  Divine.  Love, 
he  has  said,  fulfils  all  laws  in  one.  It  casts  out  evil 
from  the  heart;  it  stays  the  injurious  hand  and  tongue; 
and  makes  it  impossible  for  hberty  to  give  the  rein  to 
any  wanton  or  selfish  impulse.  But  tiie  law  of  love  is 
no  natural,  automatic  impulse.     It  is  a  Divine  inspira- 


348  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

tion.  "Love  is  of  God."  It  is  the  characteristic  "fruit 
of  the  Spirit "  of  adoption  (ver.  22),  implanted  and 
nourished  from  above.  When  I  bid  you  "  by  love 
serve  each  other,"  the  Apostle  says,  I  do  not  expect 
you  to  keep  this  law  of  yourselves,  by  force  of  native 
goodness  :  I  know  how  contrary  it  is  to  your  Galatic 
nature  ;  "  but  I  say,  walk  in  the  Spirit,"  and  this  will 
be  an  easy  yoke ;  to  "  fulfil  the  de.^ire  of  the  flesh " 
will  then  be  for  you  a  thing  impossible. 

The  word  Spirit  {irvevyiaTi)  is  written  indefinitely  ; 
but  the  Galatians  knew  well  what  Spirit  the  Apostle 
meant.  It  is  "  the  Spirit "  of  whom  he  has  spoken  so 
often  in  this  letter,  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  who  had 
entered  their  hearts  when  they  first  believed  in  Christ 
and  taught  them  to  call  God  Father.  He  gave  them 
their  freedom  :  He  will  teach  them  how  to  use  it.  The 
absence  of  the  definite  article  in  Pnenma  does  not 
destroy  its  personal  force,  but  allows  it  at  the  same 
time  a  broad,  qualitative  import,  corresponding  to  that 
of  the  opposed  "  desire  of  the  flesh."  The  walk 
governed  "  by  the  Spirit  "  is  a  spiritual  walk.  As  for 
the  interpretation  of  the  dative  case  (rendered  variously 
byy  or  in,  or  even  for  the  Spirit^,  that  is  determined  by 
the  meaning  of  the  noun  itself.  "  The  Spirit "  is  not 
the  path  "  in "  which  one  walks  ;  rather  He  supplies 
the  motive  principle^  the  directing  influence  of  the  new 
life.*  Ver.  16  is  interpreted  by  vv.  18  and  25.  To 
"walk  in  the  Spirit"  is  to  be  "led  by  the  Spirit"  ;  it 
is  so  to  "live  in  the  Spirit"  that  one  habitually 
"moves"  {marches:  ver.  25)  under  His  direction. 

This  conception  of  the  indwelling  Spirit  of  God  as 
the  actuating  power  of  the  Christian's  moral  life  pre- 

*  The  construction  of  eh.  vi.  16  ;  Rom.  iv.  12 ;  Phil.  iii.  16,  is  not 
strictly  analogous. 


V.  16-26.]     CIIRISrs  SriKIT  AND  HUMAN  FLESH.       349 

dominates  in  the  rest  of  this  chapter.  We  shall  pursue 
the  general  line  of  the  Apostle's  teaching  on  the  subject 
in  the  present  Chapter,  leaving  for  future  exposition  the 
detailed  enumeration  of  the  "  fruit  of  the  Spirit "  and 
"works  of  the  flesh  "  contained  in  vv.  19 — 23.  This 
antithesis  of  Flesh  and  Spirit  presents  the  following 
considerations: — (l)  the  diametrical  opposition  of  the  two 
forces;  (2)  the  effect  of  the  predominance  of  one  or  the 
other ;  (3)  the  mastery  over  the  flesh  which  belongs  to 
those  who  are  Christ's.  In  a  word,  Christ's  Spirit  is 
the  absolute  antagonist  and  the  sure  vanquisher  of  our 
sinful  human  flesh. 

I.  "  I  say,  Walk  by  the  Spirit,  and  you  will  verily 
not  fulfil  the  lust  of  the  flesh."  On  what  ground  does 
this  bold  assurance  rest  ?  Because,  the  Apostle  replies, 
the  Spirit  and  the  flesh  are  opposites  (ver.  17).  Each  is 
bent  on  destroying  the  ascendency  of  the  other.  Their 
cravings  and  tendencies  stand  opposed  at  every  point. 
Where  the  former  rules,  the  latter  must  succumb. 
"  For  the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit 
against  the  flesh." 

The  verb  lust  in  Greek,  as  in  English,  bears 
commonly  an  evil  sense ;  but  not  necessarily  so,  nor 
by  derivation.  It  is  a  sad  proof  of  human  corruption 
that  in  all  languages  words  denoting  strong  desire  tend 
to  an  impure  significance.  Paul  extends  to  '*  the 
desire  of  the  Spirit"  the  term  which  has  just  been  used 
of  "  the  lust  of  the  flesh,"  in  this  way  sharpening  the 
antithesis.*  Words  appropriated  to  the  vocabulary  of 
the  flesh  and  degraded  by  its  use,  may  be  turned  some- 
times to  good  account  and  employed  in  the  service  of 

•  Comp.  Jas.  iv.  5:  "The  Spirit  which  He  made  to  dwell  in  us, 
yearneth  even  unto  jealous  envy"  (A*.  V.  margin)  ;  also  the  double  use 
of  i-7j\6w  in  ch.  iv.  17,  18  (Chapter  XVIII,  pp.  279,  280.). 


350  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

the  Holy  Spirit,  whose  influence  redeems  our  speech 
and  purges  the  uncleanness  of  our  Hps. 

The  opposition  here  affirmed  exists  on  the  widest 
scale.  All  history  is  a  battlefield  for  the  struggle 
between  God's  Spirit  and  man's  rebellious  flesh.  In 
the  soul  of  a  half-sanctified  Christian,  and  in  Churches 
like  those  of  Corinth  and  Galatia  whose  members  are 
"  yet  carnal  and  walk  as  men,"  the  conflict  is  patent. 
The  Spirit  of  Christ  has  established  His  rule  in  the 
heart ;  but  His  supremacy  is  challenged  by  the  insur- 
rection of  the  carnal  powers.  The  contest  thus  revived 
in  the  soul  of  the  Christian  is  internecine ;  it  is  that  of 
the  kingdoms  of  light  and  darkness,  of  the  opposite 
poles  of  good  and  evil.  It  is  an  incident  in  the  war 
of  human  sin  against  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  which 
extends  over  all  time  and  all  human  life.  Every  lust, 
every  act  or  thought  of  evil  is  directed,  knowingly  or 
unknowingly,  against  the  authority  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
against  the  presence  and  the  rights  of  God  immanent 
in  the  creature.  Nor  is  there  any  restraint  upon  evil, 
any  influence  counteracting  it  in  man  or  nation  or  race, 
which  does  not  proceed  from  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord. 
The  spirit  of  man  has  never  been  without  a  Divine 
Paraclete.  '^  God  hath  not  left  Himself  without 
witness "  to  any ;  and  *'  it  is  the  Spirit  that  beareth 
witness,  because  the  Spirit  is  truth."  The  Spirit  of 
truth,  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  the  Spirit  of  all  truth  and 
hohness.  In  the  "  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  "  He  possesses 
His  highest  instrument.  But  from  the  beginning  it 
was  His  office  to  be  God's  Advocate,  to  uphold  law,  to 
convict  the  conscience,  to  inspire  the  hope  of  mercy,  to 
impart  moral  strength  and  freedom.  We  ^'  believe  in 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  life." 

This   war   of  Spirit   and    Flesh   is   first   ostensibly 


V.  16-26.]     CJJKIS'rs  SPIRIT  AND  HUMAN  FLESH,       351 

declared  in  the  words  of  Gen.  vi.  3.  This  passage 
indicates  the  moral  reaction  of  God's  Spirit  against  the 
world's  corruption,  and  the  protest  which  in  the  darkest 
periods  of  human  depravity  He  has  maintained.  God 
had  allowed  men  to  do  despite  to  His  good  Spirit.  But 
it  cannot  always  be  so.  A  time  comes  when,  outraged 
and  defied,  He  withdraws  His  influence  from  men  and 
from  communities ;  and  the  Flesh  bears  them  along 
to  swift  destruction.  So  it  was  in  the  world  before 
the  Flood.  So  largely  amongst  later  heathen  peoples, 
when  God  "  suffered  all  nations  to  walk  in  their  own 
ways."  Even  the  Mosaic  law  had  proved  rather  a 
substitute  than  a  medium  for  the  free  action  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  on  men.  "The  law  was  spiritual,"  but 
"weak  through  the  flesh."  It  denounced  the  guilt 
which  it  w^as  powerless  to  avert. 

With  the  advent  of  Christ  all  this  is  changed.  The 
Spirit  of  God  is  now,  for  the  first  time,  sent  forth  in 
His  proper  character  and  His  full  energy.  At  last  His 
victory  draws  near.  He  comes  as  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
and  the  Father,  *^ poured  out  upon  all  flesh."  "  A  new 
heart  will  I  give  you,  and  a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within 
you.  I  will  put  My  Spirit  within  you  "  (Ezek.  xxxvi. 
25 — 27)  :  this  was  the  great  hope  of  prophecy;  and  it 
is  realised.  The  Spirit  of  God's  Son  regenerates  the 
human  heart,  subdues  the  flesh,  and  establishes  the 
communion  of  God  with  men.  The  reign  of  the  Spirit 
on  earth  was  the  immediate  purpose  of  the  manifestation 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

But  what  does   Paul   really  mean   by  "the  flesh?" 
It  includes  everything  that  is  not  "  of  the  Spirit."     It 
signifies  the  entire  potency  of  sin.     It  is  the  contra- 
spiritual,  the    undivine    in   man.     Its  "  works,"  as  we     | 
find    in    vv.    20,  21,  are    not    bodily    vices   only,    bu^ 


352  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

include  every  form  of  moral  debasement  and  aberration. 
Flesh  in  the  Apostle's  vocabulary  follows  the  term 
spirit^  and  deepens  and  enlarges  its  meaning  precisely 
as  the  latter  does.  Where  spirit  denotes  the  super- 
sensible in  man,  flesh  is  the  sensible,  the  bodily  nature 
as  such.  When  spirit  rises  into  the  supernatural  and 
superhuman,  yZ^s/j  becomes  the  natural,  the  human  by 
consequence.  When  spirit  receives  its  highest  signifi- 
cation, denoting  the  holy  Effluence  of  God,  His  personal 
presence  in  the  v^orld,  flesh  sinks  to  its  lowest  and 
represents  unrenewed  nature,  the  evil  principle  oppug- 
nant  and  alien  to  God.  It  is  identical  with  sin.  But 
in  this  profound  moral  significance  the  term  is  more 
than  a  figure.  Under  its  use  the  body  is  marked  out, 
not  indeed  as  the  cause,  but  as  the  instrument,  the 
vehicle  of  sin.  Sin  has  incorporated  itself  with  our 
organic  life,  and  extends  its  empire  over  the  material 
world.  When  the  Apostle  speaks  of  "  the  body  of  sin  " 
and  "of  death,"  and  bids  us  "mortify  the  deeds  of  the 
body"  and  "  the  members  which  are  upon  the  earth,"  * 
his  expressions  are  not  to  be  resolved  into  metaphors. 

On  this  definition  of  the  terms,  it  is  manifest  that 
the  antagonism  of  the  Flesh  and  Spirit  is  fundamental. 
They  can  never  come  to  terms  with  each  other,  nor 
dwell  permanently  in  the  same  being.  Sin  must  be 
extirpated,  or  the  Holy  Spirit  will  finally  depart.  The 
struggle  must  come  to  a  definitive  issue.  Human 
character  tends  every  day  to  a  more  determinate  form ; 
and  an  hour  comes  in  each  case  when  the  victory  of 
flesh  or  spirit  is  irrevocably  fixed,  when  "  the  filthy  " 
will  henceforth  "  be  filthy  still,"  and  "  the  holy,  holy 
still"  (Rev.  xxii.  ii). 

*  See  Rom.   vi.  6,   12 ;   vii.  4,  5,  23,  24 ;    viii.   10—13  >    ^o^*  "• 
11—13;  iii.  5. 


V.  i6-26.]     CHKrSTS  SPIRIT  AND   HUMAN  FLESH.        353 

The  last  clause  of  vcr.  17,  "  that  ye  may  not  do  the 
things  that  ye  would,"  has  been  variously  interpreted. 
The  rendering  of  the  Authorized  Version  ("so  that  ye 
caiifiot")  is  perilously  misleading.      Is  it  that  the  flesh 
prevents  the  Galatians  doing  the  good  they  would  ?    Or 
is  the  Spirit  to  prevent  them  doing  the  evil  they  other- 
wise would  ?    Or  are  both  these  oppositions  in  existence 
at  once,  so  that  they  waver   between  good   and  evi^, 
leading  a  partly  spiritual,  partly  carnal  life,  consistent 
neither   in   right  nor  wrong?     The  last  is  the  actual 
state  of  the  case.     Paul  is  perplexed  about  them  (ch. 
iv.   20)  ;  they  are   in   doubt  about  themselves.      They 
did  not  ''walk  in   the   Spirit,"  they  were  not   true  to 
their  Christian   principles ;    the   flesh   was    too    strong 
for  that.      Nor  would    they   break   away   from  Christ 
and  follow  the   bent  of  their  lower  nature;  the  Holy 
Spirit  held  them  back  from  doing  this.     So  they  have 
two  wills, — or  practically  none.     This  state  of  things 
was  designed  by  God, — "  t'tt  order  that  ye  may  not  do  the 
things  ye  haply  would;"  it  accords  with  the  methods 
of  His  government.      Irresolution  is  the  necessary  effect 
of  the  course  the  Galatians  had  pursued.     So  far  they 
stopped  short  of  apostasy  ;  and  this  restraint  witnessed 
to  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  still  at  work  in  their 
midst  (ch.  iii.  5  ;  vi.  i).     Let  tliis  Divine  hand  cease  to 
check  them,  and  the  flesh  would  carry  them,  with  the 
full  momentum  of  their  will,  to  spiritual  ruin.     Their 
condition  is  just  now  one  of  suspense.     They  are  poised 
in  a  kind  of  moral  equilibrium,  which  cannot  continue 
long,   but  in   which,   while   it   lasts,  the  action  of  the 
conflicting    forces    of    Flesh    and    Spirit    is    strikingly 
manifest. 

II.  These  two  principles  in  their  development  lead 
to  entirely  opposite  results. 

23 


354  T^iE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

(i)  The  works  of  the  flesh — "manifest"  alas,  both 
then  and  now — exclude  from  the  kingdom  of  God.  "I 
tell  you  beforehand/'  the  Apostle  writes,  *'  as  I  have 
already  told  you :  they  who  practise  such  things  will 
not  inherit  God's  kingdom  "  (v.  2i). 

This  warning  is  essential  to  Paul's  gospel  (Rom.  ii. 
1 6);  it  is  good  news  for  a  world  where  wrong  so  often 
^nd  so  insultingly  triumphs,  that  there  is  a  judgement 
to  come.  Whatever  may  be  our  own  lot  in  the  great 
award,  we  rejoice  to  believe  that  there  will  be  a  right- 
eous settlement  of  human  affairs,  complete  and  final; 
and  that  this  settlement  is  in  the  hands  of  Jesus  Christ. 
In  view  of  His  tribunal  the  Apostle  goes  about  "  warnmg 
and  teaching  every  man."  And  this  is  his  constant 
note,  amongst  profligate  heathen,  or  hypocritical  Jews, 
or  backsliding  and  antinomian  Christians, — "  The  un- 
righteous shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God."  For 
that  kingdom  is,  above  all,  righteousness.  Men  of 
fleshly  minds,  in  the  nature  of  things,  have  no  place 
in  it.  They  are  blind  to  its  light,  dead  to  its  influence, 
at  war  with  its  aims  and  principles.  "  If  we  say  that 
we  have  fellowship  with  Him — the  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ — and  walk  in  darkness,  we  lie  "  (i  John  i.  6). 
"  Those  who  do  such  things "  forfeit  by  doing  them 
the  character  of  sons  of  God.  His  children  seek  to 
be  "  perfect  as  their  heavenly  Father  is  perfect."  They 
are  "blameless  and  harmless,  imitators  of  God,  walking 
in  love  as  Christ  loved  us"  (Phil.  ii.  15  ;  Eph.  v.  I,  2). 
The  Spirit  of  God's  Son  is  a  spirit  of  love  and  peace, 
of  temperance  and  gentleness  (v.  22).  If  these  fruits 
are  wanting,  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  not  in  us  and  we 
are  none  of  His.  We  are  without  the  one  thing  by 
which  He  said  all  men  would  know  His  disciples  (John 
xiii.  35).     When  the  Galatians  "bite  and  devour  one 


V.  i6-26.]     Cll/USrS  SPIRIT  AND  HUMAN'  FLESH.       355 

anollier,"  they  resemble  Ishniael  tlie  persecutor  (oh.  iv. 
29),  rather  than  the  gentle  Isaac,  heir  of  the  Covenant. 

"  If  children,  ilicn  heirs."  Future  destiny  turns  upon 
present  character.  The  Spirit  of  God's  Son,  with  His 
fruit  of  love  and  peace,  is  "  the  earnest  of  our  inherit- 
ance, sealing  us  against  the  day  of  redemption"  (Hph. 
i.  14;  iv.  30).  By  selfish  tempers  and  llcslily  indul- 
gences He  is  driven  from  the  soul  ;  and  losing  Ilim,  it 
is  shut  out  from  the  kingdom  of  giate  on  earth,  and 
from  the  glory  of  the  redeemed.  "Th-.re  shall  in  no 
wise  enter  into  it  anything  unclean  ; "  such  is  the 
excommunication  written  above  the  gate  of  the  I  leavcnly 
City  (Rev.  xxi.  zy).  This  sentence  of  the  Apocalypse 
puts  a  final  seal  upon  the  teaching  of  Scripture.  The 
God  of  revelation  is  the  Holy  One;  His  Spirit  is  the 
Holy  Spirit ;  His  kingdom  is  the  kingdom  of  the  saints, 
whose  atmosphere  burns  like  fire  against  all  impurity. 
Concerning  the  men  of  the  llesh  the  Apostle  can  only 
say,  "Whose  end  is  perdition"  (Piiil.  iii.  19). 

Writing  to  the  Corinthians,  Paul  entreats  his  readers 
not  to  be  deceived  upon  this  point  (i  Cor.  vi.  9,  lO; 
Eph.  V.  5).  It  seems  so  obvious,  so  necessary  a  prin- 
ciple, that  one  wonders  how  it  should  be  mistaken, 
why  he  is  compelled  to  reiterate  it  as  he  does  in  this 
place.  And  yet  this  has  been  a  common  delusion.  No 
form  of  religion  has  escaped  being  touched  by  Anti- 
nomianism.  It  is  the  divorce  of  piety  from  morality. 
It  is  the  disposition  to  think  that  ceremonial  works  <>n 
the  one  hand,  or  faith  on  the  other,  supersede  the 
ethical  conditions  of  harmony  with  G  'd.  Foisting 
itself  on  evangelical  doctrine  this  error  leads  men  to 
assume  that  salvation  is  the  mei  e  pardon  of  sin.  I  he 
sinner  appears  to  imagine  he  is  saved  in  order  to 
remain   a  sinner.     He   treats  God's  mercy   as  a   kind 


t 


356  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

of  bank,  on  which  he  may  draw  as  often  as  his  offences 
past  or  future  may  require.  He  does  not  understand 
that  sanctification  is  the  sequel  of  justification,  that 
the  evidence  of  a  true  pardon  Hes  in  a  changed  heart 
that  loathes  sin. 

(2)  Of  the  opposite  principle  the  Apostle  states  not 
the  ultimate,  but  the  more  immediate  consequences. 
"Led  by  the  Spirit,  ye  are  not  under  the  laiv^^  (ver. 
18);  and  "Against  such  things — love,  peace,  goodness, 
and  the  like — there  is  no  law  "  (ver.  23). 

The  declaration  of  ver.  18  is  made  with  a  certain 
abruptness.  Paul  has  just  said,  in  ver.  17,  that  the 
Spirit  is  the  appointed  antagonist  of  the  flesh.  And 
now  he  adds,  that  if  we  yield  ourselves  to  His  in- 
fluence we  shall  be  no  longer  under  the  laiv.  This 
identification  of  sin  and  the  law  was  established  in 
eh.  ii.  16 — 18;  iii.  lO — 22.  The  law  by  itself,  the 
Apostle  showed,  does  not  overcome  sin,  but  aggra- 
vates it ;  it  shuts  men  up  the  hopeless  prisoners  of 
their  own  past  mis-doing.  To  be  "  under  law  "  is  to 
be  in  the  position  of  Ishmael,  the  slave-born  and  finally 
outcast  son,  whose  nature  and  temper  are  of  the  flesh 
(ch.  iv.  21 — 31).  After  all  this  we  can  understand  his 
writing  law  for  sin  in  this  passage,  just  as  in  I  Cor.  xv. 
56  he  calls  "  the  law  the  power  of  sin."  To  be  under 
law  was,  in  Paul's  view,  to  be  held  consciously  in  the 
grasp  of  sin.  This  was  the  condition  to  which  Legalism 
would  reduce  the  Galatians.  From  this  calamiity  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  would  keep  them  free. 

The  phrase  "  under  law "  reminds  us  once  more  of 
the  imperilled  liberty  of  the  Galatians.  Their  spiritual 
freedom  and  their  moral  safety  were  assailed  in 
common.  In  ver.  16  he  had  said,  "Let  the  Holy 
Spirit    guide  you,   and   you   will  vanquish   sin";    and 


V.  16-26.]    CHRIS!  S  SPIRIT  AND  IIUMAS  FLESH.       357 

now,  "  By  the  same  guidance  you  will  escape  the 
oppressive  yoke  of  the  law."  rrLcdoin  from  sin, 
freedom  from  the  Jewish  law — these  two  liberties 
were  virtually  one.  "  Sin  shall  not  lord  it  over  you, 
because  ye  are  not  under  law,  but  under  grace  "  (Rom. 
vi.  14).  Ver.  23  explains  this  double  freedom.  Those 
who  possess  the  Spirit  of  Christ  bear  His  mf)ral  fruits. 
Their  life  fulfils  the  demands  of  the  law,  ivillioitt  being 
due  to  its  compulsion.  Law  can  say  nothing  against 
them.  It  did  not  produce  this  fruit;  but  it  is  bound 
to  approve  it.  It  has  no  hold  on  the  men  of  the  Spirit, 
no  charge  to  bring  against  them.  Its  requirements 
are  satisfied ;  its  constraints  and  threatenings  are  laid 
aside. 

Law  therefore,  in  its  Judaistic  sense  and  application, 
has  been  abolished  since  "  faith  has  come."  No 
longer  does  it  rule  the  soul  by  fear  and  compulsion. 
This  office,  necessary  once  for  the  infant  heirs  of  the 
Covenant,  it  has  no  right  to  exercise  over  spiritual 
men.  Law  cannot  give  life  (ch.  iii.  21).  This  is 
the  prerogative  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  Law  says, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  ; "  but  it  never 
inspired  such  love  in  any  man's  breast.  If  he  does  so 
love,  the  law  approves  him,  without  claiming  credit  to 
itself  for  the  fact.  If  he  does  not  love  his  God,  law 
condemns  him  and  brands  him  a  transgressor.  But 
"  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.'*  The  teaching  of  this  paragraph  on  the 
relation  of  the  believer  in  Christ  to  God's  law  is 
summed  up  in  the  words  of  Rom.  viii.  2  :  "  The  law 
of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  made  me  free  from 
the  law  of  sin  and  death."  Law  has  become  my  friend, 
instead  of  my  enemy  and  accuser.  For  God's  Spirit 
fills  my  soul  with  the  love  in  which  its  fulfilment  is 


.58  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

contained.  And  now  eternal  life  is  the  goal  that 
stinds  in  my  view,  in  place  of  the  death  with  the 
prospect  of  which,  as  a  man  of  the  flesh,  the  law 
appalled  me. 

III.  We  see  then  that  deliverance  from  sin  belongs 
not  to  the  subjects  of  the  law,  but  to  the  freemen  of 
the  Spirit.  This  deliverance,  promised  in  ver.  i6,  is 
declared  in  ver.  24  as  an  accomplished  fact.  '*  Walk 
by  the  Spirit,  and  ye  shall  not  fulfil  the  lust  of  the 
flesh.  .  .  .  They  that  are  of  Christ  Jesus  have  crucified 
the  flesh  with  its  passions  and  its  lusts."  The  tyranny 
of  the  flesh  is  ended  for  those  who  are  "  in  Christ 
Jesus."  His  cross  has  slain  their  sins.  The  entrance 
of  His  Spirit  imports  the  death  of  all  carnal  affec 
tions. 

"They  who  are  Christ's  did  crucify  the  flesh." 
This  is  the  moral  application  of  Paul's  mystical  doc- 
trine, central  to  all  his  theology,  of  the  believer's  union 
with  the  Redeemer  (see  Chapter  X,  pp.  156 — 160). 
"  Christ  in  me — I  in  Him  : "  there  is  Paul's  secret. 
He  was  "  one  spirit  "  with  Jesus  Christ — dying,  risen, 
ascended,  reigning,  returning  in  glory.  His  old  self, 
his  old  world  was  dead  and  gone — slain  by  Christ's 
cross,  buried  in  His  grave  (ch.  ii.  20  ;  vi.  14).  And 
the  flesh,  common  to  the  evil  world  and  the  evil  self — 
that  above  all  was  crucified.  The  death  of  shame  and 
legal  penalty,  the  curse  of  God  had  overtaken  it  in  the 
death  of  Jesus  Christ.  Christ  has  risen,  the  "  Lord  of 
the  Spirit"  (2  Cor.  iii.  18),  who  *^ could  not  be  holden" 
by  the  death  which  fell  on  "  the  body  of  His  flesh." 
They  who  are  Christ's  rose  with  Him  ;  while  "  the 
flesh  of  sin  "  stays  in  His  grave.  Faith  sees  it  there, 
and  leaves  it  there.  We  "  reckon  ourselves  dead  unto 
sin,  and  living  unto  God,  in  Christ  Jesus."     For  such 


/.  16-26.]     CinaS7"S  SPIRIT  AND  HUMAN  FLESH.        359 


men,  the  flesh  that  was  once — imperious,  importunate, 
law-defying — is  no  more.  It  lias  received  its  death- 
stroke.  *'.God,  sending  Ilis  own  Son  in  the  likeness 
of  sinful  flesh  and  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  condemned  sin 
in  the  flesh''  (Rom.  viii.  3).  Sin  is  smitten  with  the 
lightning  of  His  anger.  Doom  has  taken  hold  of  it. 
Destroyed  already  in  principle,  it  only  waits  for  men  to 
know  this  and  to  understand  what  has  been  done,  till 
it  shall  perish  everywhere.  The  destruction  of  the 
sinful  flesh — more  strictly  of  "  sin  in  the  flesh " — 
occurred,  as  Paul  understood  the  matter,  virtually  and 
potentially  in  the  moment  of  Christ's  death.  It  was 
our  human  flesh  that  was  crucified  in  Him — slain  on 
the  cross  because,  though  in  Him  not  personally 
sinful,  yet  in  us  with  whom  He  had  made  Himself 
one,  it  was  steeped  in  sin.  Our  sinful  flesh  hung  upon 
His  cross ;  it  has  risen,  cleansed  and  sanctified,  from 
His  grave. 

What  was  then  accomplished  in  principle  when 
"  One  died  for  all,"  is  realised  in  point  of  fact  when 
we  are  "  baptized  into  His  death  " — when,  that  is  to 
say,  faith  makes  His  death  ours  and  its  virtue  passes 
into  the  soul.  The  scene  of  the  cross  is  inwardly 
rehearsed.  The  wounds  which  pierced  the  Redeemer's 
flesh  and  spirit  now  pierce  our  consciences.  It  is  a 
veritable  crucifixion  through  which  the  soul  enters  into 
communion  with  its  risen  Saviour,  and  learns  to  live 
His  life.  Nor  is  its  sanctification  complete  till  it  is 
"  conformed  unto  His  death"  (Phil.  ill.  lo).  So  with 
all  his  train  of  ** passions  and  of  lusts,"  the  "old  man"  is 
fastened  and  nailed  down  upon  the  new,  interior  Calvary, 
set  up  in  each  penitent  and  believing  heart.  The 
flesh  may  still,  as  in  these  Galatians,  give  mournful 
evidence  of  life.     But  it  has  no  right  to  exist  a  single 


36o  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

hour.  De  jure  it  is  dead — dead  in  the  reckoning  of 
faith.  It  may  die  a  hngering,  protracted  death,  and 
make  convulsive  struggles ;  but  die  it  must  in  all  who 
are  of  Christ  Jesus. 

Let  the  Galatians  consider  what  their  calling  of  God 
signified.  Let  them  recall  the  prospects  which  opened 
before  them  in  the  days  of  their  first  faith  in  Christ, 
the  love  that  glowed  in  their  hearts,  the  energy  with 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  wrought  upon  their  nature.  Let 
them  know  how  truly  they  were  called  to  liberty,  and 
in  good  earnest  were  made  sons  of  God.  They  have 
only  to  continue  as  heretofore  to  be  led  by  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  and  to  march  forward  along  the  path  on  which 
they  had  entered,  and  neither  Jewish  law  nor  their 
own  lawless  flesh  will  be  able  to  bring  them  into 
bondage.  '*  Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is 
liberty."  Where  He  is  not,  there  is  legalism,  or 
licence ;  or,  it  may  be,  both  at  once. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

THE    WORKS  OF  THE  FLESH. 

"Now  the  works  of  the  flesh  are  manifest,  which  are  M£'j(r,  fornication, 
uncleanness,  lasciviousness,  idolatry,  sorcery,  enmities,  strife,  jealousies, 
wraths,  factions,  divisions,  parties,  envyings,  drunkenness,  revellin^s, 
and  such  like  :  of  the  which  I  forewarn  you,  even  as  I  did  forewarn 
you,  that  they  which  practise  such  things  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom 
of  God." — Gal.  v.  19—21. 

THE  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits:  the  flesh  by  its 
''works."  And  these  works  are  "  manifest."  The 
field  of  the  world — "  this  present  evil  world  "  (ch.  i.  4) 
— exhibits  them  in  rank  abundance.  Perhaps  at  no 
time  was  the  civilised  world  so  depraved  and  godless 
as  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era,  when  Tiberius, 
Caligula,  Nero,  Domitian,  wore  the  imperial  purple  and 
posed  as  masters  of  the  earth.  It  was  the  cruelty  and 
vilcness  of  the  times  which  culminated  in  these  deified 
monsters.  By  no  accident  was  mankind  cursed  at  this 
epoch  with  such  a  race  of  rulers.  The  world  that  wor- 
shipped them  was  worthy  of  them.  Vice  appeared  in 
its  most  revolting  and  abandoned  forms.  Wickedness 
was  rampant  and  triumphant.  The  age  of  the  early 
Roman  Empire  has  left  a  foul  mark  in  human  history 
and  literature.     Let  Tacitus  and  Juvenal  speak  for  it. 

Paul's  enumeration  of  the  current  vices  in  this  pas- 
sage  has  however  a  character  of  its  own.     It   dillcrs 


362  TJIE  EPISTLE    TO    THE  GALATIANS, 

from  the  descriptions  drawn  by  the  same  hand  in  other 
P-pistles  ;  and  this  difference  is  due  doubtless  to  the 
character  of  his  readers.  Their  temperament  was 
sanguine  ;  their  disposition  frank  and  impulsive.  Sins 
of  lying  and  injustice,  conspicuous  in  other  lists,  are 
not  found  in  this.  From  these  vices  the  Galatic  nature 
was  comparatively  free.  vSensual  sins  and  sins  of 
passion — tinchastity^  vindictiveness,  intempei'ance — occupy 
the  field.  To  these  must  be  added  idolairy,  common  to 
the  Pagan  world.  Gentile  idolatry  was  allied  with  the 
practice  of  impurity  on  the  one  side  ;  and  on  the  other, 
through  the  evil  of  "  sorcery,"  with  "  enmities "  and 
"jealousies.  So  that  these  works  of  the  flesh  belong 
to  four  distinct  types  of  depravity  ;  three  of  which  come 
under  the  head  of  im.morality,  while  the  fourth  is  the 
universal  principle  of  Pagan  irreligion,  being-  in  turn 
both  cause  and  effect  of  the  moral  debasement  connected 
with  it. 

I.  '*  The  works  of  the  flesh  are  these— /ormca lion, 
itncleaiitiess,  /asciviousness."  A  dark  beginning  !  Sins 
of  impurity  find  a  place  in  every  picture  of  Gentile 
morals  given  by  the  Apostle.  In  whatever  direction  he 
writes — to  Romans  or  Corinthians,  Galatians,  Ephesians, 
or  Thessalonians — it  is  always  necessary  to  warn 
against  these  evils.  They  are  equally  "  manifest "  in 
heathen  literature.  The  extent  to  which  they  stain  the 
pages  of  the  Greek  and  Romian  classics  sets  a  heavy 
discount  against  their  value  as  instruments  of  Christian 
education.  Civilised  society  in  Paul's  day  was  steeped 
in  sexual  corruption. 

Fornication  was  practically  universal.  Few  were 
found,  even  among  severe  moralists,  to  condemn  it. 
The  overthrow  of  the  splendid  classical  civilisation,  due 
to  the  extinction  of  manly  virtues  in  the  dominant  race, 


V.  19-21.]  THE    WORKS  OF  THE   F/.ESff.  3^,3 


may  be  traced  laigely  to  tliis  cause.  Brave  men  are 
the  sons  of  pure  women.  John  in  the  Apocalypse  has 
written  on  the  brow  of  Rome,  "  the  great  city  which 
rcigneth  over  tlie  kings  of  the  earth,"  this  legend  :  "  Baby- 
lon the  great,  mother  of  harlots  "  (Rev.  xvii.  5).  Whatever 
symbolic  meaning  the  saying  has,  in  its  literal  sense 
it  was  terribly  true.  Our  modern  Babylons,  unless 
they  purge  themselves,  may  earn  the  same  title  and 
the  same  doom. 

In  writing  to  Corinth,  the  metropolis  of  Greek  licen- 
tiousness, Paul  deals  very  solemnly  and  explicitly  with 
this  vice.  He  teaches  that  this  sin,  above  others,  is 
committed  "  against  the  man's  own  body."  It  is  a 
prostitution  of  the  physical  nature  which  Jesus  Christ 
wore  and  still  wears,  which  He  claims  for  the  temple 
of  His  Spirit,  and  will  raise  from  the  dead  to  share 
His  immortality.  Impurity  degrades  the  body,  and  it 
affronts  in  an  especial  degree  "the  Holy  Spirit  which 
we  have  from  God."  Therefore  it  stands  first  amongst 
these  "works  of  the  flesh"  in  which  it  shows  itself 
hostile  and  repugnant  to  the  Spirit  of  our  Divine  son- 
ship.  "Joined  to  the  harlot"  in  "one  body,"  the  vile 
offender  gives  himself  over  in  compact  and  communion 
to  the  dominion  of  the  flesh,  as  truly  as  he  who  is 
"joined  to  the  Lord"  is  "  one  spirit  with  Him" 
(l  Cor.  vi.  13 — 20). 

On  this  subject  it  is  difficult  to  speak  faithfully  and 
yet  directly.  There  are  many  happily  in  our  sheltered 
Christian  homes  who  scarcely  know  of  the  existence  of 
this  heathenish  vice,  except  as  it  is  named  in  Scripture. 
To  them  it  is  an  evil  of  the  past,  a  nameless  thing  of 
darkness.  And  it  is  well  it  should  be  so.  Knowledge 
of  its  horrors  may  be  suitable  for  seasoned  social  re- 
formers, and  necessary  to  the  publicist  who  must  under- 


364  THE  EFISTLE   TO   TIJE   GALATIANS. 

stand  the  worst  as  well  as  the  best  of  the  world  he  has 
to  serve ;  but  common  decency  forbids  its  being  put 
within  the  reach  of  boys  and  innocent  maidens.  News- 
papers and  novels  which  reek  of  the  divorce-court  and 
trade  in  the  garbage  of  human  life,  in  '^  things  of  which 
it  is  a  shame  even  to  speak/'  are  no  more  fit  for  ordinary 
consumption  than  the  air  of  the  pest-house  is  for 
breathing.  They  are  sheer  poison  to  the  young  ima- 
gination, which  should  be  fed  on  whatsoever  things 
are  honourable  and  pure  and  lovely.  But  bodily  self- 
respect  must  be  learned  in  good  time.  Modesty  of 
feehng  and  chastity  of  speech  must  adorn  our  youth. 
"  Let  marriage  be  honourable  in  the  eyes  of  all/'  let 
the  old  chivalrous  sentiments  of  reverence  and  gentle- 
ness towards  women  be  renewed  in  our  sons,  and  our 
country's  future  is  safe.  Perhaps  in  our  revolt  from 
Mariolatry  we  Protestants  have  too  much  forgotten  the 
honour  paid  by  Jesus  to  the  Virgin  Mother,  and  the 
sacredness  which  His  birth  has  conferred  on  mother- 
hood. "  Blessed,"  said  the  heavenly  voice,  "  art  thou 
among  women."  All  our  sisters  are  blessed  and 
dignified  in  her,  the  holy  ''  mother  of  our  Lord " 
(Luke  i.  42,  43).* 

Wherever,  and  in  whatever  form,  the  offence  exists 
which  violates  this  relationship,  Paul's  fiery  interdict 
is  ready  to  be  launched  upon  it.  The  anger  of  Jesus 
burned  against  this  sin.  In  the  wanton  look  He  dis- 
cerns the  crime  of  adultery,  which  in  the  Mosaic  law 
was  punished  with  death  by  stoning.  ^'The  Lord  is 
an  avenger  in  all  these  things" — in  everything  that 
touches  the  honour  of  the  human  person  and  the  sanc- 


*  Comp.,  I    Tim.   ii.  13 — 15:  saved  through  the  childhearing — i.e.y 
surely,  the  bearing  of  the  Child  Jesus,  the  seed  of  the  woman. 


V.  19-21.]  THE    WORKS   OF   TIIK   I'LIiSII.  365 

tity  of  wtddcd  life  (i  Thcss.  iv.  I — 8j.  riic  interests 
that  abet  whoredom  should  find  in  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  an  organization  pledged  to  relentless  war  against 
them.  The  man  known  to  practise  this  wickedness  is 
an  enemy  of  Christ  and  of  his  race.  lie  should  be 
shunned  as  we  would  shun  a  notorious  liar — or  a  fallen 
woman.  Paul's  rule  is  explicit,  and  binding  on  all 
Christians,  concerning  "  the  fornicator,  the  drunkard, 
the  extortioner — with  such  a  one  no,  not  to  eat" 
(l  Cor.  V.  9 — u).  That  Church  little  deserves  the 
name  of  a  Church  of  Christ,  which  has  not  means  of 
discipline  sufiicient  to  fence  its  communion  from  the 
polluting  presence  of  "  such  a  one." 

Unclcminess  and  lasciviousness  are  companions  of  the 
more  specific  impurity.  The  former  is  the  general 
quality  of  this  class  of  evils,  and  includes  whatever  is 
contaminating  in  word  or  look,  in  gesture  or  in  dress, 
in  thought  or  sentiment.  "  Lasciviousness  "  is  unclean- 
ness  open  and  shameless.  The  filthy  jest,  the  ogling 
glance,  the  debauched  and  sensual  face,  these  tell  their 
own  tale  ;  they  speak  of  a  soul  that  has  rolled  in  cor- 
ruption till  respect  for  virtue  has  died  out  of  it.  In 
this  direction  "the  works  of  the  flesh "  can  go  no 
further.  A  lascivious  human  creature  is  loathsomeness 
itself.  To  see  it  is  like  looking  through  a  door  into 
hell. 

A  leading  critic  of  our  own  times  has,  under  this 
word  of  Paul's,  put  his  finger  upon  the  plague-spot  in 
the  national  Hfe  of  our  Gallic  neighbours— .'is^^Tr/a,  or 
Wantonness.  There  may  be  a  certain  truth  in  this 
charge.  Their  disposition  in  several  respects  resembles 
that  of  Paul's  Galatians.  But  we  can  scarcely  afford  to 
reproach  others  on  this  score.  English  society  is  none 
too  clean.     IIo))ie  is  for  our  people  everywhere,  thank 


^66  THE  EPISTLE    TO    THE   GALAl'IANS. 

%j 

God,  the  nursery  of  innocence.  But  outside  its  shelter, 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  the  mother's  voice,  how  many 
perils  await  the  weak  and  unwary.  In  the  night-streets 
of  the  city  the  *' strange  woman"  spreads  her  net, 
''whose  feet  go  down  to  death."  In  workshops  and 
business-offices  too  often  coarse  and  vile  language  goes 
on  unchecked,  and  one  unchaste  mind  will  infect  a 
whole  circle.  Schools,  wanting  in  moral  discipline,  may 
become  seminaries  of  impurity.  There  are  crowded 
quarters  in  large  towns,  and  wretched  tenements  in 
many  a  country  village,  where  the  conditions  of  life  are 
such  that  decency  is  impossible  ;  and  a  soil  is  prepared 
in  which  sexual  sin  grows  rankly.  To  cleanse  these 
channels  of  social  life  is  indeed  a  task  of  Hercules  ;  but 
the  Church  of  Christ  is  loudly  called  to  it.  Her  voca- 
tion is  in  itself  a  purity  crusade,  a  war  declared  against 
"  all  filthiness  of  flesh  and  spirit." 

II.  Next  to  lust  in  this  procession,  of  the  Vices  comes 
idolatry.  In  Paganism  they  were  associated  by  many 
ties.  Some  of  the  most  renowned  and  popular  cults 
of  the  day  were  open  purveyors  of  sensuality  and  lent 
to  it  the  sanctions  of  religion.  Idolatry  is  found  here 
in  fit  company  (comp.  I  Cor.  x.  6 — 8).  Peter's  First 
Epistle,  addressed  to  the  Galatian  with  other  Asiatic 
Churches,  speaks  of  "  the  desire  of  the  Gentiles  "  as 
consisting  in  "  lasciviousness,  lusts,  w^inebibbings,  revel- 
lings,  carousings,  and  abominable  idolatries  "  (ch.  iv.  3). 

Idolatry  forms  the  centre  of  the  awful  picture  of  Gentile 
depravity  drawn  by  our  Apostle  in  his  letter  to  Rome 
(ch.  i.).  It  is,  as  he  there  shows,  the  outcome  of  man's 
native  antipathy  to  the  knowledge  of  God.  WiUingly 
men  "took  lies  in  the  place  of  truth,  and  served  the 
creature  rather  than  the  Creator."  They  merged  God 
in    nature,    debasing  the   spiritual    conception    of  the 


19-2 I.J  THE    WORKS  01'    THE  I'LESU.  367 


Deity  with  fleshly  attributes.  This  blending  of  Goil 
with  the  world  gave  rise,  amongst  the  mass  of  man- 
kind, to  Polytheism ;  while  in  the  minds  of  the  more 
reflective  it  assumed  a  Pantheistic  shape.  The  manifold 
of  nature,  absorbing  the  Divine,  broke  it  up  into  "  gods 
many  and  lords  many  " — gods  of  the  earth  and  sky  and 
ocean,  gods  and  goddesses  of  war,  of  tillage,  of  love,  of 
art,  of  statecraft  and  handicraft,  patrons  of  human  vices 
and  follies  as  well  as  of  excellencies,  changing  with 
every  climate  and  with  the  varying  moods  and  condi- 
tions of  their  worshippers.  No  longer  did  it  appear 
that  God  made  man  in  His  image ;  now  men  made 
gods  in  ''the  likeness  of  the  imrjge  of  corruptible  man, 
and  of  winged  and  four-footed  and  creeping  things." 

When  at  last  under  the  Roman  Empire  the  different 
Pagan  races  blended  their  customs  and  faiths,  and  "the 
Orontes  flowed  into  the  Tiber,"  there  came  about  a 
perfect  chaos  of  religions.  Gods  Greek  and  Roman, 
Phrygian,  Syrian,  Egyptian  jostled  each  other  in  the 
great  cities — a  colluvies  dconim  more  bewildering  even 
than  the  colluvies  gentium, — each  cultus  striving  to 
outdo  the  rest  in  extravagince  and  licence  The 
system  of  classic  Paganism  was  reduced  to  impotence. 
The  false  gods  destroyed  each  other  iT.e  mixture  of 
heathen  religions,  none  of  them  pure,  produced  com- 
plete demoralisation. 

The  Jewish  monotheism  remained,  the  one  rock  of 
human  faith  in  the  midst  of  this  dissolution  of  the  old 
nature-creeds.  Its  conception  of  the  Godhead  was  not 
so  much  metaphysical  as  ethical.  "Hear  O  Israel," 
says  every  Jew  to  his  fellows,  "  the  Lord  our  God  is 
on(?  Lord."  But  that  "  one  Lord  "  was  also  '*  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel."  Let  his  holiness  be  sullied,  let  the 
thought    of    the    Divine    ethical    transcendence    suffer 


368  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

eclipse,  and  He  sinks  back  again  into  the  manifold  of 
nature.  Till  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh  through 
the  sinless  Christ,  it  was  impossible  to  conceive  of  a 
perfect  purity  allied  to  the  natural.  To  the  mind  of 
the  Israelite,  God's  holiness  was  one  with  the  aloneness 
in  which  he  held  Himself  sublimely  aloof  from  all 
material  forms,  one  with  the  pure  spirituality  of  His 
being.  "  There  is  none  holy  save  the  Lord  ;  neither 
is  there  any  rock  like  our  God  : "  such  was  his  lofty 
creed.  On  this  ground  prophecy  carried  on  its  inspired 
struggle  against  the  tremendous  forces  of  naturalism. 
When  at  length  the  victory  of  spiritual  religion  was 
gained  in  Israel,  unbehef  assumed  another  form ;  the 
knowledge  of  the  Divine  unity  hardened  into  a  sterile 
and  fanatic  legalism,  into  the  idolatry  of  dogma  and 
tradition  ;  and  Scribe  and  Pharisee  took  the  place  of 
Prophet  and  of  Psalmist. 

The  idolatry  and  immorality  of  the  Gentile  world 
had  a  common  root.  God's  anger,  the  Apostle  declared, 
blazed  forth  equally  against  both  (Rom.  i.  1 8).  The 
monstrous  forms  of  uncleanness  then  prevalent  were  a 
fitting  punishment,  an  inevitable  consequence  of  heathen 
impiety.  They  marked  the  lowest  level  to  which 
human  nature  can  fall  in  its  apostasy  from  God.  Self- 
respect  in  man  is  ultimately  based  on  reverence  for  the 
Divine.  Disowning  his  Maker,  he  degrades  himself. 
Bent  on  evil,  he  must  banish  from  his  soul  that 
warning,  protesting  image  of  the  Supreme  Holiness  in 
which  he  was  created. 

"  He  tempts  his  reason  to  deny 
God  whom  his  passions  dare  defy.* 

"  They  did  not  like  to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge." 
"They  loved  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their 


V.  19  21.]  THE    WORKS  OF  THE  I-LESll.  369 


deeds    were    evil."       These    are    terrible    accusations. 
But  the  history  of  natural  religion  confirms  their  truth. 

Sorcery  is  the  attendant  of  idolatry.  A  low,  natural- 
istic conception  of  the  Divine  lends  itself  to  immoral 
purposes.  Men  try  to  operate  upon  it  by  material 
causes,  and  to  make  it  a  partner  in  evil.  Such  is  the 
origin  of  magic.  Natural  objects  deemed  to  possess 
supernatural  attributes,  as  the  stars  and  the  flight  of 
birds,  have  divine  omens  ascribed  to  them.  Drugs  of 
occult  power,  and  things  grotesque  or  curious  made 
mysterious  by  the  fancy,  are  credited  with  influence 
over  the  Nature-gods.  From  the  use  of  drugs  in 
incantations  and  exorcisms  the  word  pliarmakeia,  here 
denoting  sorcery,  took  its  meaning.  The  science  of 
chemistry  has  destroyed  a  world  of  magic  connected 
with  the  virtues  of  herbs.  These  superstitions  formed 
a  chief  branch  of  sorcery  and  witchcraft,  and  have 
flourished  under  many  forms  of  idolatry.  And  the 
magical  arts  were  common  instruments  of  malice.  The 
sorcerer's  charms  were  in  requisition,  as  in  the  case  of 
Balaam,  to  curse  one's  enemies,  to  weave  some  spell 
that  should  involve  them  in  destruction.  Accordingly 
sorcery  finds  its  place  there  between  idolatry  and 
e>i}}iit{es. 

111.  On  this  latter  head  the  Apostle  enlarges  with 
edifying  amplitude.  Enmities,  strife  Jealousies^  ratings, 
factions^  divisions,  parties,  envyings — what  a  list ! 
Eight  out  of  fifteen  of  "  the  works  of  the  flesh  manifest " 
to  Paul  in  writing  to  Galatia  belong  to  this  one 
category.  The  Celt  all  over  the  world  is  known  for  a 
hot-tempered  fellow.  He  has  high  capabilities  ;  he  is 
generous,  enthusiastic,  and  impressionable.  Meanness 
and  treachery  are  foreign  to  his  nature.  But  he  is 
initable.     And  it  is  in  a  vain  and  irritable  disposition 

24 


370  7^HE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

that  these  vices  are  engendered.  Strife  and  division 
have  been  proverbial  in  the  history  of  the  Gallic 
nations.  Their  jealous  temper  has  too  often  neutralised 
their  engaging  quahties ;  and  their  quickness  and 
cleverness  have  for  this  reason  availed  them  but  little 
in  competition  with  more  phlegmatic  races.  In  High- 
land clans,  in  Irish  septs,  in  French  wars  and  Revolu- 
tions the  same  moral  features  reappear  which  are  found 
in  this  delineation  of  Galatic  life.  This  persistence  of 
character  in  the  races  of  mankind  is  one  of  the  most 
impressive  facts  of  history. 

*'  Enmities "  are  private  hatreds  or  family  feuds, 
which  break  out  openly  in  "  strife."  This  is  seen  in 
Church  affairs,  when  men  take  opposite  sides  not  so 
much  from  any  decided  difference  of  judgement,  as  from 
personal  dislike  and  the  disposition  to  thwart  an 
opponent.  "  Jealousies  "  and  ''wraths"  (or  ''rages") 
are  passions  attending  enmity  and  strife.  There  is 
jeaLusy  where  one's  antagonist  is  a  rival,  whose 
success  is  felt  as  a  wrong  to  oneself.  This  may  be  a 
silent  passion,  repressed  by  pride  but  consuming  the 
mind  inwardly.  Rage  is  the  open  eruption  of  anger 
which,  when  powerless  to  inflict  injur}^,  will  find  vent 
in  furious  language  and  menacing  gestures.  There  are 
natures  in  which  these  tempests  of  rage  take  a  perfectly 
demonic  form.  The  face  grows  livid,  the  limbs  move 
convulsively,  the  nervous  organism  is  seized  by  a  storm 
of  frenzy  ;  and  until  it  has  passed,  the  man  is  literally 
beside  himself.  Such  exhibitions  are  truly  appalling. 
They  are  "  works  of  the  flesh  "  in  which,  yielding  to 
its  own  ungoverned  impulse,  it  gives  itself  up  to  be 
possessed  by  Satan  and  is  "  set  on  fire  of  hell." 

Factions^  divisionSy  parties  are  words  synonymous. 
"Divisions"  is  the  more  neutral  term,  and  represents 


V.  19  2  1.]  THE    WORKS   OF  THE   ELESII.  371 


tlie  state  into  which  a  coninuinity  is  thrown  by  the 
working  of  the  spirit  of  strife.  "  Factions  "  imply  more 
of  S(^lf-intc;cst  and  policy  in  those  concerned  ;  "  parties  " 
are  due  rather  to  self-will  and  opinionativeness.  The 
Greek  word  employed  in  this  last  instance,  as  in  I  Cor. 
xi.  19,  has  become  our  heresies.  It  does  not  imply  of 
necessity  any  doctrinal  di (Terence  as  the  ground  of  the 
party  distinctions  in  question.  At  the  same  time,  this 
expression  is  an  advance  on  those  foregoing,  pointing 
to  such  divisions  as  have  grown,  or  threaten  to  grow 
into  "  distinct  and  organized  parties  "  (Lightfoot). 

Eniyings  (or  grudges)  complete  this  bitter  series. 
This  term  might  have  found  a  |>lace  beside  "  enmities  " 
and  "strife."  Standing  where  it  does,  it  seems  to  denote 
the  rankling  anger,  the  persistent  ill-will  caused  by 
party-feuds.  The  Galatian  quarrels  left  behind  them 
grudges  and  resentments  which  became  inveterate. 
These  "  envyings,"  the  fruit  of  old  contentions,  were 
.n  turn  the  seed  of  new  strife.  Settled  rancour  is  the 
last  and  worst  form  of  contentiousness.  It  is  so  much 
more  culpable  than  "jealousy"  or  ''rage,"  as  it  has  not 
the  excuse  of  personal  conflict ;  and  it  does  not  subside, 
as  the  fiercest  outburst  of  passion  may,  leaving  room 
for  forgiveness.  It  nurses  its  revenge,  waiting,  like 
Shylock,  for  the  time  when  it  shall  "feed  fat  its  ancient 
grudge." 

*'  Where  jealousy  and  faction  are,  there,"  says  James, 
"  is  confusion  and  every  vile  deed."  This  was  the 
state  of  things  to  which  the  Galatian  societies  were 
tending.  The  Judaizers  had  sown  the  seeds  of  discord, 
and  it  had  fallen  on  congenial  soil.  Paul  has  already 
invoked  Ci  rist's  law  of  love  to  exorcise  this  spirit  of 
destruction  (vv.  13 — 15).  lie  tells  the  Galatians  that 
their  vainglorious  and  provoking  attitude  towards  each 


372  THE  ErJSTLE   TO   THE   GAf.ATIANS. 

Other  and  their  envious  disposition  are  entirely  con- 
trary to  the  life  in  the  Spirit  which  they  professed  to 
lead  (vv.  25,  26),  and  fatal  to  the  existence  of  the 
Church.  These  were  the  ''  passions  of  the  flesh " 
which  most  of  all  they  needed  to  crucify. 

IV.  Finally,  we  come  to  sins  of  intemperance — 
drunkenness,  revellings,  and  the  like. 

These  are  the  vices  of  a  barbarous  people.  Our 
Teutonic  and  Celtic  forefathers  were  alike  prone  to 
this  kind  of  excess.  Peter  warns  the  Galatians  against 
**  wine-bibbings,  revellings,  carousings."  The  passion 
for  strong  drink,  along  with  "  lasciviousness "  and 
'Musts"  on  the  one  hand,  and  ''abominable  idolatries" 
on  the  other,  had  in  Asia  Minor  swelled  into  a  "cataclysm 
of  riot,"  overwhelming  the  Gentile  world  (l  Pet.  iv. 
3,  4).  The  Greeks  were  a  comparatively  sober  people. 
The  Romans  were  more  notorious  for  gluttony  than 
for  hard  drinking.  The  practice  of  seeking  pleasure 
in  intoxication  is  a  remnant  of  savagery,  which  exists 
to  a  shameful  extent  in  our  own  country.  It  appears 
to  have  been  prevalent  with  the  Galatians,  whose 
ancestors  a  few  generations  back  were  northern 
barbarians. 

A  strong  and  raw  animal  nature  is  in  itself  a  tempta- 
tion to  this  vice.  For  men  exposed  to  cold  and  hard- 
ship, the  intoxicating  cup  has  a  potent  fascination.  The 
flesh,  buffeted  by  the  fatigues  of  a  rough  day's  work, 
finds  a  strange  zest  in  its  treacherous  delights.  The 
man  "  drinks  and  forgets  his  poverty,  and  remembers 
his  misery  no  more."  For  the  hour,  while  the  spell 
is  upon  him,  he  is  a  king ;  he  lives  under  another  sun ; 
the  world's  wealth  is  his.  He  wakes  up  to  find  himself 
a  sot  1  With  racked  head  and  unstrung  frame  he 
returns  to  the  toil  and  squalor  of  his  life,  adding  new 


i.iiy-jr.]  THE    WORKS  OF  THE  FLESH.  373 

wretchedness  to  that  lie  had  striven  to  forget.  Anon 
he  says,  "  I  will  seek  it  yet  again  ! "  When  the  craving 
has  once  mastered  him,  its  indulgence  becomes  his  only 
pleasure.  Such  men  deserve  our  deepest  pity.  They 
need  for  their  salvation  all  the  safeguards  that  Christian 
sympathy  and  wisdom  can  throw  around  them. 

There  are  others  "given  to  much  wine,"  for  whom 
one  feels  less  compassion.  Their  convivial  indulgences 
are  a  part  of  their  general  habits  of  luxury  and  sen- 
suality, an  open,  flagrant  triumph  of  the  flesh  over  the 
Spirit.  These  sinners  require  stern  rebuke  and  warn- 
ing. They  must  understand  that  "  those  who  practise 
such  things  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,"  that 
"he  who  sovveth  to  his  own  flesh,  shall  of  the  flesh 
reap  corruption."  Of  these  and  their  like  it  was  that 
Jesus  said,  '*Woe  unto  you  that  laugh  now;  for  ye 
shall  mourn  and  weep." 

Our  British  Churches  at  the  present  time  are  more 
alive  to  this  than  perhaps  to  any  other  social  evil. 
They  are  setting  themselves  sternly  against  drunken- 
ness, and  none  too  soon.  Of  all  the  works  of  the  flesh 
this  has  been,  if  not  the  most  potent,  certainly  the  most 
conspicuous  in  the  havoc  it  has  wrought  amongst  us. 
Its  ruinous  effects  are  "  manifest "  in  every  prison  and 
asylum,  and  in  the  private  history  of  innumerable 
families  in  every  station  of  life.  Who  is  there  that 
has  not  lost  a  kinsman,  a  friend,  or  at  least  a  neighbour 
or  acquaintance,  whose  life  was  wrecked  by  this  ac- 
cursed passion  ?  Much  has  been  done,  and  is  doing,  to 
check  its  ravages.  But  more  remains  to  be  accom- 
plished before  civil  law  and  public  opinion  shall  furnish 
all  the  protection  against  this  evil  necessary  for  a 
people  so  tempted  by  climate  and  by  constitution  as 
our  own. 


374  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATL4NS. 

V\l ith  fornica (ion  at  the  beginning  and  dniiikcnness  at 
the  end,  Paul's  description  of  "  the  works  of  the  flesh" 
,  is,  alas  !  far  indeed  from  being  out  of  date.  The  dread 
procession  of  the  Vices  marches  on  before  our  eyes. 
Races  and  temperaments  vary  ;  science  has  transformed 
the  visible  aspect  of  life ;  but  the  ruling  appetites  of 
human  nature  are  unchanged,  its  primitive  vices  are  with 
us  to-day.  The  complicated  problems  of  modern  life, 
the  gigantic  evils  which  confront  our  social  reformers, 
are  simply  the  primeval  corruptions  of  mankind  in  a 
new  guise — the  old  lust  and  greed  and  hate.  Under 
his  veneer  of  manners,  the  civilized  European,  untouched 
by  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  is  still  apt  to 
be  found  a  selfish,  cunning,  unchaste,  revengeful,  super- 
stitious creature,  distinguished  from  his  barbarian  pro- 
genitor chiefly  by  his  better  dress  and  more  cultivated 
brain,  and  his  inferior  agility.  Witness  the  great 
Napoleon,  a  very  "  god  of  this  world,"  but  in  all  that 
gives  worth  to  character  no  better  than  a  savage  ! 

With  Europe  turned  into  one  vast  camp  and  its 
nations  groaning  audibly  under  the  weight  of  their 
armaments,  with  hordes  of  degraded  women  infesting 
the  streets  of  its  cities,  with  discontent  and  social 
hatred  smouldering  throughout  its  industrial  popula- 
tions, we  have  small  reason  to  boast  of  the  triumphs  of 
modern  civilisation.  Better  circumstances  do  not  make 
better  men.  James'  old  question  has  for  our  day  a 
terrible  pertinence  :  "Whence  come  wars  and  fightings 
among  you  ?  Come  they  not  hence,  even  of  your 
pleasures  that  war  in  your  members  ?  Ye  lust,  and 
have  not :  3^e  kill,  and  covet,  and  cannot  obtain.  Ye 
ask  and  receive  not,  because  ye  ask  amiss,  that  ye  may 
spend  it  on  your  pleasures." 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

THE    FRUIT   OF    THE    SPIRIT, 

"But  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  longsuffcrinp, 
kindness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance  :  against  such  there 
is  no  law." — Gal.  v.  22,  23. 

"  'nr^HE  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits."  Such  was  the 
X  criterion  of  religious  profession  laid  down  by 
the  Founder  of  Christianity.  This  test  Mis  religion 
applies  in  the  first  instance  to  itself.  It  proclaims  a 
final  judgement  for  all  men  ;  it  submits  itself  to  the 
present  judgement  of  all  men — a  judgement  resting  in 
each  case  on  the  same  ground,  namely  that  of/////"/, 
of  moral  issue  and  effects.  For  character  is  the  true 
stunmum  bonum;  it  is  the  thing  which  in  our  secret 
hearts  and  in  our  better  moments  we  all  admire  and 
covet.  The  creed  which  produces  the  best  and  purest 
character,  in  the  greatest  abundance  and  under  the  most 
varied  conditions,  is  that  which  the  world  will  believe. 

These  verses  contain  the  ideal  of  character  furnished 
by  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Here  is  the  religion  of  Jesus 
put  in  practice.  These  are  the  sentiments  and  habits, 
the  views  of  duty,  the  temper  of  mind,  which  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ  tends  to  form.  Paul's  conception  of  the 
ideal  human  life  at  once  "commends  itself  to  every 
man's  conscience."  And  he  owed  it  to  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  His  ethics  are  the  fruit  of  his  dogmatic  faith. 
What  other  system  of  belief  has  produced  a  like  result^ 


376  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

or  has  formed  in  men's  minds  ideas  of  duty  so  reason- 
able and  gracious,  so  just,  so  balanced  and  perfect,  and 
above  all  so  practicable,  as  those  inculcated  in  the 
Apostle's  teaching  ? 

*'  Men  do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of 
thistles."  Thoughts  of  this  kind,  lives  of  this  kind,  are 
not  the  product  of  imposture  or  delusion.  The  "  works  " 
of  systems  of  error  are  "  manifest "  in  the  moral  wrecks 
they  leave  behind  them,  strewing  the  track  of  history. 
But  the  virtues  here  enumerated  are  the  fruits  which 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  has  brought  forth,  and  brings  forth 
at  this  day  more  abundantly  than  ever.  As  a  theory 
of  morals,  a  representation  of  what  is  best  in  conduct, 
Christian  teaching  has  held  for  1 8oo  years  an  unrivalled 
place.  Christ  and  His  Apostles  are  still  the  masters 
of  morality.  Few  have  been  bold  enough  to  offer  any 
improvements  on  the  ethics  of  Jesus  ;  and  smaller  still 
has  been  the  acceptance  which  their  proposals  have 
obtained.  The  new  idea  of  virtue  which  Christianity 
has  given  to  the  world,  the  energy  it  has  imparted  to 
the  moral  will,  the  immense  and  beneficial  revolu- 
tions it  has  brought  about  in  human  society,  supply  a 
powerful  argument  for  its  divinity.  Making  every 
deduction  for  unfaithful  Christians,  who  dishonour 
"  the  worthy  name  "  they  bear,  still  '*  the  fruit  of  the 
Spirit "  gathered  in  these  eighteen  centuries  is  a 
glorious  witness  to  the  virtue  of  the  tree  of  life  from 
which  it  grew. 

This  picture  of  the  Christian  life  takes  its  place  side 
by  side  with  others  found  in  Paul's  Epistles.  It  recalls 
the  figure  of  Charity  in  I  Cor.  xiii.,  acknowledged  by 
moralists  of  every  school  to  be  a  master-piece  of 
characterization.  It  stands  in  line  also  with  the  oft- 
quoted  enumeration  of  Phil.  iv.  8  :  "Whatsoever  things 


V.22, 23.]  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  STIR  17'.  377 


are  true,  whatsoever  things  are  reverend,  whatsoever 
things  are  just,  whatsoever  tilings  are  chaste,  whatso- 
ever things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  kindly 
spoken,  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any 
praise,  think  on  these  things."  These  representations 
db  not  pretend  to  theoretical  completeness.  It  would 
be  easy  to  specify  important  virtues  not  mentioned 
in  the  Apostle's  categories.  His  descriptions  have  a 
practical  aim,  and  press  on  the  attention  of  his  readers 
the  special  forms  and  qualities  of  virtue  demanded 
from  them,  under  the  given  circumslances,  by  their 
faith  in  Christ. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  Apostle's  definitions 
with  Plato's  celebrated  scheme  of  the  four  cardinal 
virtues.  They  are  wisdom,  courage,  temperance,  with 
rigJiteoits)iess  as  the  union  and  co-ordination  of  the 
other  three.  The  difference  between  the  cast  of  the 
Platonic  and  Pauline  ethics  is  most  instructive.  In  the 
Apostle's  catalogue  the  fiist  two  of  the  philosophical 
virtues  are  wanting ;  unless  "  courage  "  be  included,  as 
it  properly  may,  under  the  name  of  "  virtue  "  in  the 
Philippian  list.  With  the  Greek  thinker,  ivisdom  is 
the  fundamental  excellence  of  the  soul.  Knowledge  is 
in  his  view  the  supreme  desideratum,  the  guarantee  for 
moral  health  and  social  well-being.  The  philosopher 
is  the  perfect  man,  the  proper  ruler  of  the  common- 
wealth. Intellectual  culture  brings  in  its  train  ethical 
improvement.  For  "  no  man  is  knowingly  vicious  : " 
such  was  the  dictum  of  Socrates,  the  father  of  Philo- 
sophy. In  the  ethics  of  the  gospel,  love  becomes  the 
chief  of  virtues,  parent  of  the  rest. 

Love  and  humility  are  the  two  features  whose 
predominance  distinguishes  the  Christian  from  the 
purest    classical    conceptions    of    moral    worth.       The 


378  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS, 

ethics  of  Naturalism  know  love  as  a  passion,  a  sensuous? 
instinct  (epco?)  ;  or  again,  as  the  personal  affectiou 
which  binds  friend  to  friend  through  common  interest 
or  resemblance  of  taste  and  disposition  ((J^lXlo).  Love 
in  its  highest  sense  (ayaTrrj)  Christianity  has  re-dis- 
covered, finding  in  it  a  universal  law  for  the  reason 
and  spirit.  It  assigns  to  this  principle  a  like  place  to 
that  which  gravitation  holds  in  the  material  universe, 
as  the  attraction  which  binds  each  man  to  his  Maker 
and  to  his  fellows.  Its  obligations  neutrahse  self- 
interest  and  create  a  spiritual  solidarity  of  mankind, 
centring  in  Christ,  the  God-man.  Pre-Christian 
philosophy  exalted  the  intellect,  but  left  the  heart  cold 
and  vacant,  and  the  deeper  springs  of  will  untouched. 
It  was  reserved  for  Jesus  Christ  to  teach  men  how  to 
love,  and  in  love  to  find  the  law  of  freedom. 

If  love  was  wanting  in  natural  ethics,  humility  was 
positively  excluded.  The  pride  of  philosophy  regarded 
it  as  a  vice  rather  than  a  virtue.  "  Lowliness "  is 
ranked  with  "  pettiness  "  and  "  repining  "  and  "  des- 
pondency "  as  ilie  product  of  *^  littleness  of  soul." 
On  the  contrary,  the  man  of  lofty  soul  is  held  up 
to  admiration,  who  is  "  worthy  of  great  things  and 
deems  himself  so," — who  is  "  not  given  to  wonder,  for 
nothing  seems  great  to  him," — who  is  "  ashamed  to 
receive  benefits,"  and  "  has  the  appearance  indeed  of 
being  supercilious "  (Aristotle).  How  far  removed  is 
this  model  from  our  Example  who  has  said,  "  Learn  ot 
Me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart."  The  classical 
idea  of  virtue  is  based  on  the  greatness  of  man  ;  the 
Christian,  on  the  goodness  of  God.  Before  the  Divine 
glory  in  Jesus  Christ  the  soul  of  the  believer  bows 
in  adoration.  It  is  humbled  at  the  throne  of  grace, 
chastened  into  self-forgetting.     It  gazes  on  this  Image 


r.22, 23-]  THE  IKUIT  OF  THE  SPIKIT.  379 


of  love   and   holiness,   till    it  repeats  itself  within   the 
heart. 

Nine  virtues  are  woven  together  in  this  golden  chain 
of  the  Holy  Spirit's  fruit.  They  fall  into  three  groups 
of  three,  four,  and  two  respectively — according  as  they 
refer  primarily  to  God,  love,  joy ^  peace ;  to  one's  fellow- 
men,  lungsuffcring,  kindness,  goodness,  faith ;  and  to 
oneself,  meekness,  temperance.  But  the  successive 
qualities  are  so  closely  linked  and  pass  into  one 
another  with  so  little  distance,  that  it  is  undesirable  to 
emphasize  the  analysis  ;  and  while  bearing  the  above 
distinctions  in  mind,  we  shall  seek  to  give  to  each  of 
the  nine  graces  its  separate  place  in  the  catalogue. 

I.  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love.  That  fitliest  first. 
Love  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  the  Apostle's  thoughts 
concerning  the  new  life  in  Christ.  This  queen  of 
graces  is  already  enthroned  within  this  chapter.  In 
ver.  6  Love  came  forward  to  be  the  minister  of  Faith  ; 
in  ver.  14  it  reappeared  as  the  ruling  principle  of  Divine 
law.  These  two  offices  of  love  are  united  here,  where 
it  becomes  the  prime  fruit  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God, 
to  whom  the  heart  is  opened  by  the  act  of  faith,  and 
who  enables  us  to  keep  God's  law.  Love  is  "  the 
fulfilling  of  the  law;"  for  it  is  the  essence  of  the 
gospel  ;  it  is  the  spirit  of  sonship  ;  without  this  Divine 
affection,  no  profession  of  faith,  no  practice  of  good 
works  has  any  value  in  the  sight  of  God  or  intrinsic 
moral  worth.  Though  I  have  all  other  gifts  and  merits 
— wanting  this,  "1  am  nothing"  (l  Cur.  xiii.  1—3)- 
The  cold  heart  is  dead.  Whatever  appears  to  be 
Christian  that  has  not  the  love  of  Christ,  is  an  unreality 
— a  matter  of  orthodox  opinion  or  mechanical  per- 
formance— dead  as  the  body  without  the  spirit.     In  all 


o 


80  rilE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS, 


true  goodness  there  is  an  element  of  love.  Here  then 
is  the  fountain-head  of  Christian  virtue,  the  "  well  of 
water  springing  up  into  eternal  life "  which  Christ 
opens  in  the  believing  soul,  from  which  flow  so  many 
bounteous  streams  of  mercy  and  good  fruits. 

This  love  is,  in  the  first  instance  and  above  all,  love 
to  God.  It  springs  from  the  knowledge  of  His  love  to 
man.  ^'  God  is  love,"  and  "  love  is  of  God  "  (i  John  iv. 
7,  8).  All  love  flows  from  one  fountain,  from  the  One 
Father.  And  the  Father's  love  is  revealed  in  the  Son. 
Love  has  the  cross  for  its  measure  and  standard. 
"  Ha  sent  the  Only-begotten  into  the  world,  that  we 
might  live  through  Him.  Herein  is  love:  hereby  know 
we  love"  (i  John  iii.  16;  iv.  9,  lo).  The  man  who 
knows  this  love,  whose  heart  responds  to  the  manifes- 
tation of  God  in  Christ,  is  "  born  of  God."  His  soul 
is  ready  to  become  the  abode  of  all  pure  affections,  his 
life  the  exhibition  of  all  Christ-like  virtues.  For  the 
love  of  the  Father  is  revealed  to  him  ;  and  the  love  of 
a  son  is  enkindled  in  his  soul  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Son. 

In  Paul's  teaching,  love  forms  the  antithesis  to  know- 
ledge. By  this  opposition  the  wisdom  of  God  is  dis- 
tinguished from  "  the  wisdom  of  this  world  and  of  its 
princes,  which  come  to  nought"  (l  Cor.  i.  23;  ii.  8; 
viii.  I,  3).  Not  that  love  despises  knowledge,  or  seeks 
to  dispense  with  it.  It  requires  knowledge  beforehand 
in  order  to  discern  its  object,  and  afterwards  to  under- 
stand its  work.  So  the  Apostle  prays  for  the  Philip- 
pians  "  that  their  love  may  abound  yet  more  and  more 
in  knowledge  and  all  discernment"  (ch.  i.  9,  lo).  It 
is  not  love  without  krioiviedge,  heat  without  light,  the 
warmth  of  an  ignorant,  untempered  zeal  that  the 
Apostle  desiderates.  But  he  deplores  the  existence  of 
knowledge  without  love,  a  clear  head  with  a  cold  heart, 


V.  22  23-]  THE   FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIKFT.  381 


an  intellect  whose  growth  has  left  the  afToctions  starved 
and  stunttcl,  with  enlighten -d  apprehensions  of  trutli 
that  awaken  no  corresponding  emotions.  Hence  comes 
the  pride  of  reason,  the  "  knowU^dge  that  putfeth  up." 
Love  alone  knows  the  art  of  i)uilding  up. 

Loveless  knowledge  is  not  wisdom.  For  wisdom  is 
lowly  in  her  own  eyes,  mild  and  gracious.  What  the 
man  of  cold  intellect  sees,  he  sees  clearly  ;  he  reasons 
on  it  well.  But  his  data  are  defective.  He  discerns 
but  the  half,  the  poorer  half  of  life.  There  is  a  whole 
heaven  of  facts  of  which  he  takes  no  account.  lie  has 
an  acute  and  sensitive  perception  of  phenomena  coming 
within  the  range  of  his  five  senses,  and  of  everything 
that  logic  can  elicit  from  such  phenomena.  But  he 
"cannot  see  afar  off."  Above  all,  "he  that  loveth  not, 
knoweth  not  Gody  He  leaves  out  the  Supreme  Factor 
in  human  life ;  and  all  his  calculations  are  vitiated. 
"  Hath  not  God  made  foolish  the  wisdom  of  the  world?" 

If  knowledge  then  is  the  enlightened  eye,  love  is  the 
throbbing,  living  heart  of  Christian  goodness. 

2.  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  Joy.  Joy  dwells  in  the 
house  of  Love ;  nor  elsewhere  will  she  tarry. 

Love  is  the  mistress  both  of  joy  and  sorrow. 
Wronged,  frustrated,  hers  is  the  bitterest  of  griefs. 
Love  makes  us  capable  of  pain  and  shame  ;  but  equally 
of  triumph  and  delight.  Therefore  the  Lover  of  man- 
kind was  the  "  Man  of  sorrows,"  whose  love  bared  its 
breast  to  the  arrows  of  scorn  and  hate  ;  and  yet  "  for 
the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him,  He  endured  the  cross, 
despising  the  shame."  There  was  no  sorrow  like  that 
of  Christ  rejected  and  crucified  ;  no  joy  like  the  joy  of 
Christ  risen  and  reigning.  This  joy,  the  delight  of 
love  satisfied  in  those  it  loves,  is  that  whose  fulfilment 
He  has  promised  to  His  disciples  (John  xv.  8 — li). 


382  TIJE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


Such  joy  the  selfish  heart  never  knows.  Life's 
choicest  blessings,  heaven's  highest  favours  fail  to  bring 
it  happiness.  Sensuous  gratification,  and  even  in- 
tellectual pleasure  by  itself  wants  the  true  note  of 
gladness.  There  is  nothing  that  thrills  the  whole 
nature,  that  stirs  the  pulses  of  life  and  sets  them 
dancing,  like  the  touch  of  a  pure  love.  It  is  the  pearl 
of  great  price,  for  which  "  if  a  man  would  give  all 
the  substance  of  his  house,  he  would  be  utterly  con- 
temned." But  of  all  the  joys  love  gives  to  life,  that 
is  the  deepest  which  is  ours  when  "the  love  of  God 
is  shed  abroad  in  cur  heart."  Then  the  full  tide 
of  blessedness  pours  into  the  human  spirit.  Then 
we  know  of  what  happiness  our  nature  was  made 
capable,  when  we  know  the  love  that  God  hath 
toward  us. 

This  joy  in  the  Lord  quickens  and  elevates,  while 
it  cleanses,  all  other  emotions.  It  raises  the  whole 
temperature  of  the  heart.  It  gives  a  new  glow  to  life. 
It  lends  a  warmer  and  a  purer  tone  to  our  natural 
affections.  It  sheds  a  diviner  meaning,  a  brighter 
aspect  over  the  common  face  of  earth  and  sky.  It. 
throws  a  radiance  of  hope  upon  the  toils  and  weariness 
of  mortality.  It  "  glories  in  tribulation."  It  triumphs 
in  death.  He  v.'ho  ^' lives  in  the  Spirit"  cannot  be  a 
dull,  or  peevish,  or  melancholy  man.  One  with  Christ 
his  heavenly  Lord,  he  begins  already  to  taste  His  joy, 
— a  joy  which  none  taketh  away  and  which  many 
sorrows  cannot  quench. 

Joy  is  the  beaming  countenance,  the  elastic  step,  the 
singing  voice  of  Christian  goodness. 

3.  But  joy  is  a  thing  of  seasons.  It  has  its  ebb  and 
flow,  and  would  not  be  itself  if  it  were  constant.  It 
is  crossed,    varied,   shadowed  unceasingly.     On  earth 


V.22, 23-]  THE   I'RUIT  OF  THE  sr/A'/7\  3S3 


sorrow  ever  follows  in  its  trark,  as  niglit  chases  day.  No 
one  knew  this  better  than  Taul.  "  Sorrowful,"  lie  says 
of  himself  (2  Cor.  vi.  10),  "yet  always  rejoicing:"  a 
continual  alternation,  sorrow  threatening  every  moment 
to  extinguish,  but  serving  to  enhance  his  joy.  Joy 
leans  upon  her  graver  sister  Peace. 

There  is  nothing  fitful  or  febrile  in  the  quality  of 
Peace.  It  is  a  settled  quiet  of  the  heart,  a  deep, 
brooding  mystery  that  "  passeth  all  understanding," 
the  stillness  of  eternity  entering  the  spirit,  the  Sabbath 
of  God  (Heb.  iv.  9).  It  is  theirs  who  are  "justified  by 
faith"  (Rom.  v.  I,  2).  It  is  the  bequest  of  Jesus  Christ 
(John  xiv.  27).  lie  "  made  peace  for  us  through  the 
blood  of  His  cross."  He  has  reconciled  us  with  the 
eternal  law,  with  the  Will  that  rules  all  things  without 
effort  or  disturbance.  We  pass  fiom  the  region  of 
misrule  and  mad  rebellion  into  tb.e  kingdom  of  the 
Son  of  God's  love,  with  its  ordered  freedom,  its  clear 
and  tranquil  light,  its  "central  peace,  subsisting  at  the 
heart  of  endless  agitation." 

After  the  war  of  the  passions,  after  the  tempests  of 
doubt  and  fear,  Christ  has  spoken,  "Peace,  be  still!" 
A  great  calm  spreads  over  the  troubled  waters;  uiiul 
and  wave  lie  down  hushed  at  His  feet.  The  demonic 
powers  that  lashed  the  soul  into  tumult,  vanish  before 
His  holy  presence.  The  Spirit  of  Jesus  takes  posses- 
sion of  mind  and  heart  and  will.  And  His  fruit  is 
peace — always  peace.  This  one  virtue  takes  the  place 
of  the  manifold  forms  of  contention  which  make  life  a 
chaos  and  a  misery.  While  He  rules,  "the  peace  of 
God  guards  the  heart  and  thoughts  "  and  holds  them 
safe  from  inward  nmtinv  or  outward  assault ;  and  the 
dissolute,  turbulent  train  of  the  works  of  the  flesh 
find  the  gates  of  the  soul  barred  against  them. 


3^4  THE  EVl^TLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS, 

Peace  is  the  calm,  unruffled  brow,  the  poised  and 
even  temper  which  Christian  goodness  wears. 

4.  The  heart  at  peace  witli  God  has  patience  with 
men.  "  Charity  suffereth  long."  She  is  not  provoked 
by  opposition;  nor  soured  by  injustice;  no,  nor  crushed 
by  men's  contempt.  She  can  afford  to  wait ;  for  truth 
and  love  will  conquer  in  the  end.  She  knows  in  whose 
hand  her  cause  is,  and  remembers  how  long  He  has 
suffered  the  unbelief  and  rebellion  of  an  insensate 
world ;  she  "  considers  Him  that  endured  such  contra- 
diction of  sinners  against  Himself."  Mercy  and  long- 
suffering  are  qualities  that  we  share  with  God  Himself, 
in  which  God  was,  and  is,  "  manifest  in  the  flesh."  In 
this  ripe  fruit  of  the  Spirit  there  are  joined  "  the  love 
of  God,  and  the  patience  of  Christ"  (2  Thess.  iii.  5). 

Longsuffering  is  the  patient  magnanimity  of  Christ- 
ian goodness,  the  broad  shoulders  on  which  it  "beareth 
all  things  "  (i  Cor.  xiii.  7). 

5.  "  Charity  suffereth  long  and  is  kindP 
Gentleness  (or  kindness,  as  the  word  is  more  fre- 
quently and  better  rendered,)  resembles  "longsuffering" 
in  finding  its  chief  objects  in  the  evil  and  unthankful. 
But  while  the  latter  is  passive  and  self-contained,  kind- 
ness is  an  active,  busy  virtue.  She  is  moreover  of  a 
humble  and  tender  spirit,  stooping  to  the  lowest  need, 
thinking  nothing  too  small  in  which  she  may  help, 
ready  to  give  back  blessing  for  cursing,  benefit  for 
harm  and  wrong. 

Kindness  is  the  thoughtful  insight,  the  delicate  tact, 
the  gentle  ministering  hand  of  Charity. 

6.  Linked  with  kindness  comes  goodness^  which  is  its 
other  self,  differing  from  it  only  as  twin  sisters  may, 
each  fairer  for  the  beauty  of  the  other.  Goodness 
is  perhaps  more  affluent,  more  catholic  in  its  bounty  • 


V.22, 23.]  7 HE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SFUUT.  3S5 


kindness  more  delicate  and  discriminating.  The  former 
looks  to  the  benefit  conferred,  seeking  to  make  it  as 
large  and  full  as  possible ;  the  latter  has  respect  to  the 
recipients,  and  studies  to  suit  their  necessity.  While 
kindness  makes  its  opportunities,  and  seeks  out  the 
most  needy  and  miserable,  goodness  throws  its  doors 
open  to  all  comers.  Goodness  is  the  more  masculine 
and  large-hearted  form  of  charity  ;  and  if  it  errs,  errs 
through  blundering  and  want  of  tact.  Kindness  is 
the  more  feminine;  and  may  err  through  exclusiveness 
and  narrowness  of  view.     United,   they  are  perfect. 

Goodness  is  the  honest,  generous  face,  the  open  hand 
of  Charity. 

7.  This  procession  of  the  Virtues  has  conducted  us, 
in  the  order  of  Divine  grace,  from  the  thought  of  a 
loving,  forgiving  God,  the  Object  of  our  lovCy  our  joy 
a.nd  peace,  to  that  of  an  evil-doing,  unhappy  world,  with 
its  need  of  longsnffcritig  and  kindness;  and  we  now 
come  to  the  inner,  sacred  circle  of  brethren  beloved  in 
Christ,  w^here,  with  goodness,/^//// — that  is,  trustJulticsSj 
confidence — is  called  into  exercise. 

The  Authorised  rendering  "faith"  seems  to  us  in 
this  instance  preferable  to  the  "  faithfulness  "  of  the 
Revisers.  "Possibly,"  says  Bishop  Lightfoot,  "  Triari^i 
may  here  signify  *  trustfulness,  reliance,'  in  one's 
dealings  with  others  ;  comp.  I  Cor.  xiii.  7  : "  we  should 
prefer  to  say  "probably,"  or  even  "unmistakably,"  to 
this.  The  use  of  pisti's  in  any  other  sense  is  rare  and 
doubtful  in  Paul's  Epistles.  It  is  true  that  "  God  "  or 
"Christ"  is  elsewhere  implied  as  the  object  of  faith; 
but  where  the  word  stands,  as  it  does  here,  in  a  series 
of  qualities  belonging  to  human  relationships,  it  tinds, 
'.n  agreement  with  its  current  meaning,  another  applica- 
tion.    As  a  link  between  goodness  and  nurhiess,  trust- 

2i 


386  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


ftihiesSj  and  nothing  else,  appears  to  be  in  place.  The 
parallel  expression  of  I  Cor.  xiii.,  of  which  chapter  we 
find  so  many  echoes  in  the  text,  we  take  to  be  decisive  : 
"  Charity  believeth  all  things." 

The  faith  that  unites  man  to  God,  in  turn  joins  man 
to  his  fellows.  Faith  in  the  Divine  Fatherhood  becomes 
trust  in  the  human  brotherhood.  In  this  generous 
attribute  the  Galatians  were  sadly  deficient.  "  Honour 
all  men/'  wrote  Peter  to  them  ;  'Move  the  brotherhood" 
(i  Pet.  ii.  17).  Their  factiousness  and  jealousies  were 
the  exact  opposite  of  this  fruit  of  the  Spirit.  Little  was 
there  to  be  found  in  them  of  the  love  that  "  envieth  and 
vaunteth  not/'  which  '*  imputeth  not  evil,  nor  rejoiceth 
in  unrighteousness/'  which  ''  beareth,  believeth,  hopeth, 
endureth  all  things."  They  needed  more  faith  in  marif 
as  w^ell  as  in  God. 

The  true  heart  knows  how  to  trust.  He  who  doubts 
every  one  is  even  more  deceived  than  the  man  who 
blindly  confides  in  every  one.  There  is  no  more  miser- 
able vice  than  cynicism ;  no  man  more  ill-conditioned 
than  he  who  counts  all  the  world  knaves  or  fools  except 
himself  This  poison  of  mistrust,  this  biting  acid  of 
scepticism  is  a  fruit  of  irreligion.  It  is  one  of  the  surest 
signs  of  social  and  national  decay. 

The  Christian  man  knows  not  only  how  to  stand 
alone  and  to  *'  bear  all  things,"  but  also  how  to  lean 
on  others,  strengthening  himself  by  their  strength  and 
supporting  them  in  weakness.  He  delights  to  ^'  think 
others  better"  than  himself;  and  here  "meekness"  is 
one  with  "  faith."  His  own  goodness  gives  him  an  eye 
for  everything  that  is  best  in  those  around  him. 

Trustfulness  is  the  warm,  firm  clasp  of  friendship, 
the  generous  and  loyal  homage  which  goodness  ever 
pays  to  goodness. 


V.  22, 23.]  I'lIE  FJWIT  01'    THE  SI'IKIT,  387 

8.  Mcc/cncss,  as  wc  have  seen,  is  the  otiier  side  of 
faith.  It  is  not  .tanicnc'ss  and  want  of  spirit,  as  those 
who  "judge  after  the  llcsh  "  are  apt  to  think.  Nor  is 
meekness  the  mere  quietness  of  a  retiring  disposition. 
"The  man  Moses  was  very  meek,  above  all  the  men 
which  were  upon  the  face  of  the  earth."  It  comports 
with  the  highest  courage  and  activity  ;  and  is  a  qualifi- 
cation for  public  leadership.  Jesus  Christ  stands  before 
us  as  the  perfect  pattern  of  meekness.  "  1  intreat  you," 
pleads  the  Apostle  with  the  self-asserting  Corinthians, 
"by  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of  Christ  !"  Meek- 
ness is  self-repression  in  view  of  the  claims  and  needs 
of  others;  it  is  the  "charity"  which  "  seeketh  not  her 
own,  looketh  not  to  her  own  things,  but  to  the  things 
of  others."  For  her,  self  is  of  no  account  in  comparison 
with  Christ  and  His  kingdom,  and  the  honour  of  His 
brethren. 

Meekness  is  the  content  and  quiet  mien,  the  willing 
self-effacement  that  is  the  mark  of  Christlike  goodness. 

9.  Finally /^;///>^rrt«^^,  or  selj-control, — third  of  Plato's 
cardinal  virtues. 

By  this  last  link  the  chain  of  the  virtues,  at  its  higher 
end  attached  to  the  throne  of  the  Divine  love  and 
mercy,  is  fastened  firmly  down  into  the  actualities  of 
daily  habit  and  bodily  regimen.  Temperance^  to  change 
the  figure,  closes  the  array  of  the  graces,  holding  the 
post  of  the  rear-guard  which  checks  all  straggling  and 
protects  the  march  from  surprise  and  treacherous  over- 
throw. 

If  meekness  is  the  virtue  of  the  whole  man  as  he 
stands  before  his  God  and  in  the  midst  of  his  fellows, 
temperance  is  that  of  his  body,  the  tenement  and  instru- 
ment of  the  regenerate  spirit.  It  is  the  antithesis  of 
"drunkenness  and  revellings,"  which  closed  the  list  of 


3S8  THE  EPJSTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

"  works  of  the  flesh/'  just  as  the  preceding  graces,  from 
"peace"  to  "meekness,"  are  opposed  to  the  multipUed 
forms  of  '*  enmity  "  and  "  strife."     Amongst  ourselves 
very  commonly  the  same  limited  contrast  is  implied.    But 
to    make    "temperance"    signify    only    or    chiefly    the 
avoidance  of  strong  drink  is  miserably  to  narrow  its 
significance.     It  covers  the  whole  range  of  moral  dis- 
cipline, and  concerns  every  sense  and  passion  of  our 
nature.    Temperance  is  a  practised  mastery  of  self.     It 
holds  the  reins  of  the  chariot  of  life.     It  is  the  steady 
and  prompt  control  of  the  outlooking  sensibilities  and 
appetencies,  and  inwardly  moving  desires.    The  tongue, 
the  hand  and  foot,  the  eye,  the  temper,  the  tastes  and 
affections,  all  require  in  turn  to  feel  its  curb.     He  is  a 
temperate  man,  in  the   Apostle's  meaning,  who    holds 
himself  well  in  hand,  who  meets  temptation  as  a  dis- 
ciplined army  meets  the  shock  of  battle,  by  skill  and 
alertness  and  tempered  courage  baffling  the  forces  that 
outnumber  it. 

This  also  is  a  "  fruit  of  the  Spirit  " — though  we  may 
count  it  the  lowest  and  least,  yet  as  indispensable  to 
our  salvation  as  the  love  of  God  itself.  For  the  lack  of 
this  safeguard  how  many  a  saint  has  stumbled  into 
folly  and  shame  !  It  is  no  small  thing  for  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  accomplish  in  us,  no  mean  prize  for  which  we 
strive  in  seeking  the  crown  of  a  perfect  self-control. 
This  mastery  over  the  flesh  is  in  truth  the  rightful 
prerogative  of  the  human  spirit,  the  dignity  from  which 
it  fell  through  sin,  and  which  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  restores. 

And  this  virtue  in  a  Christian  man  is  exercised  for 
the  behoof  of  ethers,  as  well  as  for  his  own.  "  I  keep 
my  body  under,"  cries  the  Apostle,  "  I  make  it  my 
slave   and   not   my  master;  lest,    having   preached   to 


V.22, 23.]  THE   FRUIT  OF   THE   SJ'/A'/T.  i^) 

others,  I  myself  should  be  a  castaway  " — that  is  self- 
regard,  mere  common  prudence;  but  again,  "  It  is  good 
not  to  eat  flesh,  nor  drink  wine,  nor  to  do  anything 
whereby  a  brother  is  made  to  stumble  or  made  weak  " 
(l  Cor.  ix.  27;  Rom.  xiv.  21). 

Temperance  is  the  guarded  step,  the  sober,  measured 
walk  in  which  Christian  goodness  keej/S  the  way  of  life, 
and  makes  straight  paths  for  stumbling  and  sciaying 
feet 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

OUR  BROTHER'S  BURDEN  AND  OUR  OWN, 

"  Brethren,  even  if  a  man  be  overtaken  in  any  trespass,  ye  which 
are  spiritual,  restore  such  a  one  in  a  spirit  of  meekness  ;  looking  to 
thyself,  lest  thou  also  be  tempted.  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens, 
and  so  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ.  For  if  a  man  thinketh  himself  to  be 
something,  when  he  is  nothing,  he  deceiveth  himself.  But  let  each 
man  prove  his  own  work,  and  then  shall  he  have  his  glorying  in 
regard  of  himself  alone,  and  not  of  his  neighbour.  For  each  man 
shall  bear  his  own  burden." — Gal.  vi.  I — 5. 

THE  division  of  the  chapters  at  this  point  is  ahiiost 
as  unfortunate  as  that  between  chaps,  iv.  and  v. 
The  introductory  "  Brethren  "  is  not  a  form  of  transi- 
tion to  a  new  topic  ;  it  calls  in  the  brotherly  love  of 
the  Galatians  to  put  an  end  to  the  bickerings  and 
recriminations  which  the  Apostle  has  censured  in  the 
preceding  verses.  How  unseemly  for  brethren  to  be 
"  vainglorious  "  towards  each  other,  to  be  "  provoking 
and  envying  one  another  !  "  If  they  are  spiritual  men, 
they  should  look  more  considerately  on  the  faults  of 
their  neighbours,  more  seriously  on  their  own  responsi- 
bilities. 

The  Galatic  temperament,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
prone  to  the  mischievous  vanity  which  the  Apostle 
here  reproves.  Those  who  had,  or  fancied  they  had, 
some  superiority  over  others  in  talent  or  in  character, 
prided  themselves  upon  it.  Even  spiritual  gifts  were 
made  matter  of  ostentation  ;  and  display  on  the  part 


vi.  1-5.]     OUR  liROTIIER'S  BURDEN  AND  OUR  OWN.     391 

of  the  more  gifted  excited  the  jealousy  of  inferior 
brethren.  Tlie  same  disposition  wliich  manifests  itself 
in  arrogance  on  the  one  side,  on  the  other  takes  the 
form  of  discontent  and  envy.  Tiie  heart-burnings  and 
tlie  social  tension  which  this  state  of  things  creates, 
make  every  chance  collision  a  danger  ;  and  the 
slightest  wound  is  inflamed  into  a  rankling  sore.  The 
stumbling  brother  is  pushed  on  into  a  fall ;  and  the 
fallen  man,  wiio  might  have  been  helped  to  his  feet, 
is  left  to  lie  there,  the  object  of  unpitying  reproach. 
Indeed,  tlie  lapse  of  his  ncn'ghbour  is  to  the  vain- 
glorious man  a  cause  of  satisfaction  rather  than  of 
sorrow.  The  other's  weakness  serves  for  a  foil  to  his 
strength.  Instead  of  stooping  down  to  "  restore  such 
a  one,"  he  holds  stiffly  aloof  in  the  eminence  of  con- 
scious virtue  ;  and  bears  himself  more  proudly  in  the 
lustre  added  to  his  piety  by  his  fellow's  disgrace. 
"God,  I  thank  Thee,"  he  seems  to  say,  "that  I  am 
not  as  other  men, — nor  even  as  this  wretched  back- 
slider I"  The  compellation  "Brethren"  is  itself  a 
rebuke  to  such  heartless  pride. 

There  are  two  reflections  which  should  instantly 
correct  the  spirit  of  vain-glory.  Tlie  Apostle  appeals 
in  the  first  place  to  brotherly  love,  to  the  claims  that  an 
erring  fellow-Christian  has  upon  our  sympathy,  to  the 
meekness  and  forbearance  wliich  the  Spirit  of  grace 
inspires,  in  fine  to  Christ's  law  which  makes  compas- 
sion our  duty.  At  the  same  time  he  points  out  to 
us  our  own  infirmity  and  exposure  to  temptation.  He 
reminds  us  of  the  weight  of  our  individual  respon- 
sibility and  the  final  account  awaiting  us.  A  proper 
sense  at  once  of  the  rights  of  others  and  of  our  own 
obligations  will  make  this  shallow  vanity  impossible. 

This  double-edged   exhortation    takes  shape   in  two 


.192  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  GALATIANS. 

leading  sentences,  sharply  clashing  with  each  other 
in  the  style  of  paradox  in  which  the  Apostle  loves  to 
contrast  the  opposite  sides  of  truth  :  "  Bear  ye  one 
another's  burdens "  (ver.  2) ;  and  yet  "  Every  man 
shall  bear  his  own  burden  "  (ver.  5). 

I.  What  then  are  the  considerations  that  commend 
the  burdens  of  others  for  our  bearing  ? 

The  burden  the  Apostle  has  in  view  is  that  of  a 
brother's  trespass :  "  Brethren,  if  a  man  be  overtaken 
in  some  trespass." 

Here  the  question  arises  as  to  whether  Paul  means 
overtaken  by  the  temptation^  or  by  the  discovery  of  his 
sin — surprised  into  committing,  or  tn  committing  the 
trespass.  Winer,  Lightfoot,  and  some  other  inter- 
preters, read  the  words  in  the  latter  sense  :  "  surprised, 
detected  in  the  act  of  committing  any  sin,  so  that  his 
guilt  is  placed  beyond  a  doubt "  (Lightfoot).  We  are 
persuaded,  notwithstanding,  that  the  common  view  of 
the  text  is  the  correct  one.  The  manner  of  the 
offender's  detection  has  little  to  do  with  the  way  in 
which  he  should  be  treated ;  but  the  circumstances  of 
his  fall  have  everything  to  do  with  it.  The  sudden- 
ness, the  surprise  of  his  temptation  is  both  a  reason 
for  more  lenient  judgment,  and  a  ground  for  hope  of 
his  restoration.  The  preposition  *'  in "  (eV),  it  is 
urged,  stands  in  the  way  of  this  interpretation.  We 
might  have  expected  to  read  "  (surprised)  by,^^  or 
perhaps  *^into  (any  sin)."  But  the  word  is  "trespass," 
not  "  sin."  It  points  not  to  the  cause  of  the  man's 
fall,  but  to  the  condition  in  which  it  has  placed  him. 
The  Greek  preposition  (according  to  a  well  known 
idiom  of  verbs  of  motion^*  indicates  the  result  of  the 

*  For  this  pregnant  force  of  kv  see  the  grammarians  :    Moullon's 
Winer,  pp.  514,  5;  A.  Btiiinmnn^  pp.  328,  9.  (Eng.   Ver,). 


vi.  i-s.]     OUR  BROTHER'S  BURDEN    iXP  OUR  OWN.     39J 

unexpected  assault  to  whicli  the  man  has  been  subject. 
A  gust  of  temptation  has  caught  liim  unawares  ;  and 
we  now  see  him  lying  overthrown  and  prostrate,  in- 
volved "  in  some  trespass." 

The  Apostle  is  supposing  an  instance — possibly  an 
actual  case — in  which  the  sin  committed  was  due  to 
weakness  and  surprise,  rather  than  deliberate  inten- 
tion ;  like  that  of  Eve,  when  "  the  woman  being 
beguiled  fell  into  transgression."*  Such  a  fall  deserves 
commiseration.  The  attack  was  unlooked  for  ;  the 
man  was  off  his  guard.  The  Gallic  nature  is  heedless 
and  impulsive.  Men  of  this  temperament  should  make 
allowance  for  each  other.  An  offence  committed  in  a 
rash  moment,  under  provocation,  must  not  be  visited 
with  implacable  severity,  nor  magnified  until  it  become 
a  fatal  barrier  between  the  evil-doer  and  society.  And 
Paul  says  expressly,  "  If  a  man  be  overtaken" — a 
delicate  reminder  of  our  human  infirmity  and  common 
danger  (comp.  I  Cor.  x.  13).  Let  us  remember  that 
it  is  a  man  who  has  erred,  of  like  passions  with 
ourselves  ;  and  his  trespass  will  excite  pity  for  him, 
and  apprehension  for  ourselves. 

Such  an  effect  the  occurrence  should  have  upon  "  the 
spiritual,"  on  the  men  of  love  and  peace,  who  "  walk 
in  the  Spirit."  The  Apostle's  appeal  is  qualified  by 
this  definition.  Vain  and  self-seeking  men,  the 
irritable,  the  resentful,  are  otherwise  affected  by  a 
neighbour's  trespass.  They  will  be  angry  with  him, 
lavish  in  virtuous  scorn ;  but  it  is  not  in  them  to 
"  restore  such  a  one."  They  are  more  likely  to  aggra- 
vate than  heal  the  wound,  to  push  the  weak  man  down 
when    he   tries   to  rise,  than   to  help   him  to  his  feet. 

*   1  Tim.  ii.  14:  the  expression  is  parallel  in  point  of  grammar,  as 
well  as  sense;  -^i^ovtv  Iv  ^^a^Ja^3da€l. 


394  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GAI.ATIANS. 

The  work  of  restoration  needs  a  knowledge  of  tlie 
human  heart,  a  self-restraint  and  patient  skill,  quite 
beyond  their  capability. 

The  restoration  here  signified,  denotes  not  only,  or 
not  so  much,  the  man's  inward,  spiritual  renewal,  as 
his  recovery  for  the  Church,  the  mending  of  the  rent 
caused  by  his  removal.  In  I  Cor.  i.  lo;  2  Cor.  xiii. 
II;  I  Thess.  iii.  lo,  where,  as  in  other  places,  the 
English  verb  "  perfect  "  enters  into  the  rendering  of 
KarapTi^co,  it  gives  the  idea  of  re-adjustment,  the  right 
fitting  of  part  to  part,  member  to  member,  in  some 
larger  whole.  Writing  to  the  Corinthian  Church  at 
this  time  respecting  a  flagrant  trespass  committed 
there,  for  which  the  transgressor  was  now  penitent, 
the  Apostle  bids  its  members  "confirm  their  love" 
to  him  (2  Cor.  ii.  5 — ii).  So  here  "the  spiritual" 
amongst  the  Galatians  are  urged  to  make  it  their 
business  to  set  rigJit  the  lapsed  brother,  to  bring  him 
back  as  soon  and  safely  as  might  be  to  the  fold  of 
Christ. 

Of  all  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  meekness  is  most 
required  for  this  office  of  restoration,  the  meekness 
of  Christ  the  Good  Shepherd — of  Paul  who  was 
"gentle  as  a  nurse"  amongst  his  children,  and  even 
against  the  worst  offenders  preferred  to  "  come  in  love 
and  a  spirit  of  meekness,"  rather  than  "with  a  rod" 
(l  Thess.  ii.  7  ;  I  Cor.  iv.  21).  To  reprove  without 
pride  or  acrimony,  to  stoop  to  the  fallen  without  the 
air  of  condescension,  requires  the  "  spirit  of  meekness  " 
in  a  singular  degree.  Such  a  bearmg  lends  peculiar 
grace  to  compassion.  This  "  gentleness  of  Christ  "  is 
one  of  the  finest  and  rarest  marks  of  the  spiritual  man. 
The  morcseness  sometimes  associated  with  religious 
zeal,   the  disposition    to  jucge  hardly  the   failings  of 


vl.  I-S.]     OUR  BROTilEKS  liUKDIlN  AM)  OUR  OWN.     395 


weaker  men  is  anything  hut  according  to  Christ. 
It  is  written  of  Ilini,  "A  hruised  reed  shall  lie  net 
break,  and  the  smoking  flax  shall  He  not  quench" 
(  Isa.  xlii.  3  ;  Matt.  xii.  20). 

Meekness  becomes  sinful  men  dealing  with  f«-llow- 
sinners.  "  Considering  thyself]^  says  the  Apostle, 
"  lest  thou  also  be  tempted."  It  is  a  noticeable  thing 
that  men  morally  weak  in  any  given  direction  are  apt 
to  be  the  severest  judges  of  those  who  err  in  the  same 
respect,  just  as  people  who  have  risen  out  of  poverty 
are  often  the  harshest  towards  the  poor.  They  wish 
to  forget  tlieir  own  past,  and  hate  to  be  reminded  of  a 
condition  from  whicli  they  have  suffered.  Or  is  tlie 
judge,  in  sentencing  a  kindred  offender,  seeking  to  rein- 
force his  own  conscience  and  to  give  a  warning  to 
himself?  One  is  inclined  sometimes  to  think  so.  But 
reflection  on  our  own  infirmities  should  counteract, 
instead  of  fostering  censoriousness.  Every  man  knows 
enough  of  himself  to  make  him  chary  of  denouncing 
others.  "  Look  to  thyself!'  cries  the  Apostle.  "  Thou 
hast  considered  thy  brother's  faults.  Now  turn  thine 
eye  inward,  and  contemplate  thine  own.  Ilast  thou 
never  aforetime  committed  the  offence  with  which  he 
stands  charged  ;  or  haply  yielded  to  the  like  tempta- 
tion in  a  less  degree  ?  Or  if  not  even  that,  it  may  be 
thou  art  guilty  of  sins  of  another  kind,  though  hidden 
from  human  sight,  in  the  eyes  of  God  no  less  heinous." 
"Judge  not,"  said  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  "lest  ye 
be  judged.  With  what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be 
measured  unto  you"  (Matt.  vii.  i — 5). 

This  exhortation  begins  in  general  terms ;  but  in  the 
latter  clause  of  ver.  I  it  passes  into  the  individualising 
singular—"  looking  to  thyself,  lest  even  tlwK  be  tempted." 
The  disaster  befalling  one  reveals  the  conunon  pc-ril  ; 


$j6  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

it  is  a  signal  for  every  member  of  the  Church  to  take 
heed  to  himself.  The  scrutiny  which  it  calls  for  be- 
longs to  each  man's  private  conscience.  And  the  faith- 
fulness and  integrity  required  in  those  who  approach 
the  wrongdoer  with  a  view  to  his  recovery,  must  be 
chastened  by  personal  solicitude.  The  fall  of  a  Christ- 
ian brother  should  be  in  any  case  the  occasion  of 
heart-searching,  and  profound  humiliation.  Feelings  of 
indifference  towards  him,  much  more  of  contempt,  will 
prove  the  prelude  of  a  worse  overthrow  for  ourselves. 

The  burden  of  a  brother's  trespass  is  the  most  pain- 
ful that  can  devolve  upon  a  Christian  man.  But  this  is 
not  the  only  burden  we  bring  upon  each  other.  There 
are  burdens  of  anxiety  and  sorrow,  of  personal  infirmity, 
of  family  difficulty,  of  business  embarrassment,  infinite 
varieties  and  complications  of  trial  in  which  the  re- 
sources of  brotherly  sympathy  are  taxed.  The  injunc- 
tion of  the  Apostle  has  an  unlimited  range.  That  which 
burdens  my  friend  and  brother  cannot  be  otherwise 
than  a  solicitude  to  me.  Whatever  it  be  th^t  cripples 
him  and  hinders  his  running  the  race  set  before  him, 
I  am  bound,  according  to  the  best  of  my  judgement  and 
ability,  to  assist  him  to  overcome  it.  If  I  leave  him  to 
stagger  on  alone,  to  sink  under  his  load  when  my 
shoulder  might  have  eased  it  for  him,  the  reproach 
will  be  mine. 

This  is  no  w^ork  of  supererogation,  no  matter  of 
mere  liking  and  choice.  I  am  not  at  liberty  to 
refuse  to  share  the  burdens  of  the  brotherhood. 
"  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,"  Paul  says,  "  and  so 
fulfil  the  law  of  Christ'*  This  law  the  Apostle  has 
already  cited  and  enforced  against  the  contentions  and 
jealousies  rife  in  Galatia  (ch.  v.  14,  15).  But  it  has  a 
further  application.     Christ's  law  of  love  not  only  says, 


vi.  1.5.]     OUR  BROTIIEK'S  BURDEN  AND  OUR  OWN.     397 

"  Thou  shalt  not  bite  and  devour  ;  thou  shalt  not  pro- 
voke and  envy  thy  brother;"  but  also,  "Thou  shalt 
help  and  comfort  him,  and  regard  his  burden  as  thine 
own." 

This  law  makes  of  the  Church  one  body,  with  a 
solidarity  of  interests. and  obligations.  It  finds  employ- 
ment and  discipline  for  the  energy  of  Christian  freedom, 
in  yoking  it  to  the  service  of  the  ovcr-hurdcned.  It 
reveals  the  dignity  and  privilege  of  moral  strength, 
which  consist  not  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  own  supe- 
riority, but  in  its  power  to  bear  '*  the  infirmities  of  the 
weak."  This  was  the  glory  of  Christ,  who  "pleased 
not  Himself"  (Rom.  xv.  I — 4).  The  Giver  of  the  law 
is  its  great  Example.  "  Being  in  the  form  of  God,"  He 
''took  the  form  of  a  servant,"  that  in  love  He  might 
serve  mankind  ;  He  "  became  obedient,  unto  the  death 
of  the  cross"  (Phil.  ii.  i — 8).  Justly  is  the  inference 
drawn,  "  We  also  ought  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  the 
brethren"  (i  John  iii.  16).  There  is  no  limit  to  the 
service  which  the  redeemed  brotherhood  of  Christ  may 
expect  from  its  members. 

Only  this  law  must  not  be  abused  by  the  indolent 
and  the  overreaching,  by  the  men  who  are  ready  to 
throw  their  burdens  on  others  and  make  every  generous 
neighbour  the  victim  of  their  dishonesty.  It  is  the 
need  not  the  demand  of  our  brother  which  claims  our 
help.  We  are  bound  to  take  care  that  it  is  his  neces- 
sity to  which  we  minister,  not  his  imposture  or  his 
slothfulncss.  The  warning  that  "each  man  shall  bear 
his  own  burden  "  is  addressed  to  those  who  receive,  as 
well  as  to  those  who  render  aid  in  the  common  burden- 
bearing  of  the  Church. 

II.  The  adjustment  of  social  and  individual  duty  is 
often  far  from  easy,  and  requires  the  nicest  discernment 


398  THE  EPISTLE   TO    THE   GALATIANS. 

and  moral  tact.  Both  are  brought  into  view  in  tliis 
paragraph,  in  its  latter  as  well  as  in  its  former  section. 
But  in  vv.  I,  2  the  need  of  others,  in  vv,  3 — 5  our 
personal  responsibility  forms  the  leading  consideration. 
We  see  on  the  one  hand,  that  a  true  self-regard  teaches 
us  to  identify  ourselves  with  the  moral  interests  of 
others :  while,  on  the  other  hand,  a  false  regard  to 
others  is  excluded  (ver.  4)  which  disturbs  the  judgement 
to  be  formed  respecting  ourselves.  The  thought  of  Ins 
oivn  burden  to  be  borne  by  each  man  now  comes  to 
the  front  of  the  exhortation. 

Ver.  3  stands  between  the  two  counterpoised  esti- 
mates. It  is  another  shaft  directed  against  Galatian 
vain-glory,  and  pointed  with  Paul's  keenest  irony.  ^'  For 
if  a  man  thinketh  he  is  something,  being  nothing  he 
deceiveth  himself." 

This  truth  is  very  evident.  But  what  is  its  bearing 
on  the  matter  in  hand  ?  The  maxim  is  advanced  to 
support  the  foregoing  admonition.  It  was  their  self- 
conceit  that  led  some  of  the  Apostle's  readers  to  treat 
with  contempt  the  brother  who  had  trespassed  ;  he  tells 
them  that  this  opinion  of  theirs  is  a  delusion,  a  kind,  of 
mental  hallucination  {(ppeuaTraTa  kavjov).  It  betrays 
a  melancholy  ignorance.  The  "  spiritual "  man  who 
*'  thinks  himself  to  be  something,"  says  to  you,  "  I  am 
quite  above  these  weak  brethren,  as  you  see.  Their 
habits  of  life,  their  temptations  are  not  mine.  Their  sym- 
pathy would  be  useless  to  me.  And  I  shall  not  burden 
myself  with  their  feebleness,  nor  vex  myself  with  their 
ignorance  and  rudeness."  If  any  man  separates  himself 
from  the  Christian  commonalty  and  breaks  the  ties  of 
religious  fellowship  on  grounds  of  this  sort,  and  yet 
imagines  he  is  following  Christ,  he  "deceives  himself." 
Others  will  see  how  little  his  affected  eminence  is  worth. 


vi.  1.5.]     OUR  BROTHERS  BURDEN  AND  OUR  OWN.     399 

Some  will  humour  his  vanity;    many  will  ridicule  or 
pity  it ;  few  will  be  deceived  by  it. 

The  fact  of  a  man's  "thinking  himself  to  be  some- 
thing "  goes  far  to  prove  that  he  "is  nothing."  "  Woe 
unto  them  that  are  wise  in  their  own  eyes,  and  prudent 
in  their  own  sight."  Real  knowledge  is  humble  ;  it 
knows  its  nothingness.  Socrates,  when  the  oracle 
pronounced  him  the  wisest  man  in  Greece,  at  last  dis- 
covered that  the  response  was  right,  inasmuch  as  he 
alone  was  aware  that  he  knew  nothing,  while  other 
men  were  confident  of  their  knowledge.  And  a  greater 
than  Socrates,  our  All-wise,  All-holy  Saviour,  says  to 
us,  "  Learn  of  Me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart." 
It  is  in  humility  and  dependence,  in  self-forgetting  that 
true  wisdom  begins.  Who  are  we,  although  the  most 
refined  or  highest  in  place,  that  we  should  despise  plain, 
uncultured  members  of  the  Church,  those  who  bear 
life's  heavier  burdens  and  amongst  whom  our  Saviour 
spent  His  days  on  earth,  and  treat  them  as  unfit  for  our 
company,  unworthy  of  fellowship  with  us  in  Christ  ? 

They  are  themselves  the  greatest  losers  who  neglect 
to  fulfil  Christ's  law.  Such  men  might  learn  from  their 
humbler  brethren,  accustomed  to  the  trials  and  tempta- 
tions of  a  working  life  and  a  rough  world,  how  to  bear 
more  worthily  their  own  burdens.  How  foolish  of 
"  the  eye  to  say  to  the  hand  "  or  "  foot,  I  have  no  need 
of  thee  !  "  "  God  hath  chosen  the  poor  of  this  wc^rld 
rich  in  faith."  There  are  truths  of  which  they  are  our 
best  teachers — priceless  lessons  of  the  power  of  Divine 
grace  and  the  deep  things  of  Christian  experience. 
This  isolation  robs  the  poorer  members  of  the  Church 
in  their  turn  of  the  manifold  help  due  to  them  from 
communion  with  those  more  happily  circumstanced. 
Huw  many  of  the  evils  around  us  would  be  aii^«^Uoratcd, 


40O  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS, 

how  many  of  our  difficulties  would  vanish,  if  we  could 
bring  about  a  truer  Christian  fraternisation,  if  caste- 
feeling  in  our  English  Church-life  were  once  destroyed, 
if  men  would  lay  aside  their  stiffness  and  social  hau~ 
teur,  and  cease  to  think  that  they  "  are  something  "  on 
grounds  of  worldly  distinction  and  wealth  which  in 
Christ  are  absolutely  nothing. 

The  vain  conceit  of  their  superiority  indulged  in  by 
some  of  his  readers,  the  Apostle  further  corrects  by 
reminding  the  self-deceivers  of  their  own  responsibility. 
The  irony  of  ver.  3  passes  into  a  sterner  tone  of 
warning  in  vv.  4  and  5.  "  Let  each  man  try  his 
own  work,"  he  cries.  "  Judge  yourselves,  instead  of 
judging  one  another.  Mind  your  own  duty,  rather 
than  your  neighbours'  faults.  Do  not  think  of  your 
worth  or  talents  in  comparison  with  theirs ;  but  see  to 
it  that  your  work  is  right."  The  question  for  each  of  us 
is  not.  What  do  others  fail  to  do  ?  but.  What  am  I 
myself  really  doing  ?  What  will  my  life's  work  amount 
to,  when  measured  by  that  which  God  expects  from 
me? 

This  question  shuts  each  man  up  within  his  own 
conscience.  It  anticipates  the  final  judgement-day. 
''  Every  one  of  us  must  give  account  of  himself  to  God  " 
(Rom.  xiv.  12).  Reference  to  the  conduct  of  others  is 
here  out  of  place.  The  petty  comparisons  which  feed 
our  vanity  and  our  class-prejudices  are  of  no  avail  at 
the  bar  of  God.  I  may  be  able  for  every  fault  of  my 
own  to  find  some  one  else  more  faulty.  But  this  makes 
lyie  no  whit  better.  It  is  the  intrinsic,  not  the  compara- 
tive worth  of  character  and  daily  work  of  which  God 
takes  account.  If  we  study  our  brother's  work,  it 
should  be  with  a  view  to  enable  him  to  do  it  better,  or 
to  learn  to    improve    our  own   by  his  example ;   not 


vi.l-5.]     OUR  BROTHERS  BURDEN  ASD  OUR  OWN.     401 


in  order  to  find  excuses  for  ourselves  in  his  short- 
comings. 

"And  then  " — if  our  work  abide  the  test — "  we  shall 
have  our  glorying  in  ourselves  alone,  not  in  regard  to 
our  neighbour."  Not  his  flaws  and  failures,  but  my  own 
honest  work  will  be  the  ground  of  my  satisfaction. 
This  was  Paul's  "  glorying  "  in  face  of  the  slanders 
by  which  he  was  incessantly  pursued.  It  lay  in  the 
testimony  of  his  conscience.  He  lived  under  the 
severest  self-scrutiny.  He  knew  himself  as  the  man 
only  can  who  "  knows  the  fear  of  the  Lord,"  who 
places  himself  every  day  before  the  dread  tribunal  of 
Christ  Jesus.  He  is  "  made  manifest  unto  God;  "  and 
in  the  light  of  that  searching  Presence  he  can  affirm 
that  he  "  knows  nothing  against  himself."  *  But  this 
boast  makes  him  humble.  ^^  By  the  grace  of  God '^  he 
is  enabled  to  "  have  his  conversation  in  the  world  in 
holiness  and  sincerity  coming  of  God."  If  he  had 
seemed  to  claim  any  credit  for  himself,  he  at  once 
corrects  the  thought :  "  Yet  not  I,"  he  says,  "  but  God's 
grace  that  was  with  me.  I  have  my  glorying  in  Christ 
Jesus  in  the  things  pertaining  to  God,  in  that  which 
Christ  hath  wrought  in  me"  (l  Cor.  xv.  10;  Rom.  xv. 
16—19). 

So  that  this  boast  of  the  Apostle,  in  which  he 
invites  the  vainglorious  Galatians  to  secure  a  share, 
resolves  itself  after  all  into  his  one  boast,  "  in  the  cross 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  (ver.  14).  If  his  work  on 
trial  should  prove  to  be  gold,  "abiding"  amongst  the 
world's  imperishable  treasures  and  fixed  foundations 
of  truth  (l  Cor.  iii.  lO — 15),  Christ  only  was  to  be 
praised  for  this.     Paul's  glorying  is  the  opposite  of  the 


♦  I   Cor.  iv.  1—5;  2  Cor.  i.  12;  v.  10 — 12. 

26 


4oa  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

Legalist's,  who  presumes  on  his  "  works  "  as  his  own 
achievements,  commending  him  for  righteous  before 
God.  '^Justified  by  works,"  such  a  man  hath  *' whereof 
to  glory,  but  not  toward  God  "  (Rom.  iv.  2).  His  boast- 
ing redounds  to  himself.  Whatever  glory  belongs  to  the 
work  of  the  Christian  must  be  referred  to  God.  Such 
work  furnishes  no  ground  for  magnifying  the  man  at  the 
expense  of  his  fellows.  If  we  praise  the  stream,  it  is  to 
commend  the  fountain.  If  we  admire  the  lives  of  the 
saints  and  celebrate  the  deeds  of  the  heroes  of  faith, 
it  is  ad  niajoretn  Dei  gloriam — '^  that  in  all  things  God 
may  be  glorified  through  Jesus  Christ  "  (l  Pet.  iv.  Ii). 

''  For  each  will  bear  his  own  load."  Here  is  the 
ultimate  reason  for  the  self-examination  to  which  the 
Apostle  has  been  urging  his  readers,  in  order  to  restrain 
their  vanity.  The  emphatic  repetition  of  the  words 
each  man  in  vv.  4  and  5  brings  out  impressively  the 
personal  character  of  the  account  to  be  rendered.  At 
the  same  time,  the  deeper  sense  of  our  own  burdens 
thus  awakened  will  help  to  stir  in  us  sympathy  for 
the  loads  under  which  our  fellows  labour.  So  that  this 
v/arning  indirectly  furthers  the  appeal  for  sympathy 
with  which  the  chapter  began. 

Faithful  scrutiny  of  our  work  may  give  us  reasons 
for  satisfaction  and  gratitude  towards  God.  But  it 
will  yield  matter  of  another  kind.  It  will  call  to 
remembrance  old  sins  and  follies,  lost  opportunities, 
wasted  powers,  with  their  burden  of  regret  and  humili- 
ation. It  will  set  before  us  the  array  of  our  obligations, 
the  manifold  tasks  committed  to  us  by  our  heavenly 
Master,  compelling  us  to  say,  "Who  is  sufficient  for 
these  things  ?  "  And  beside  the  reproofs  of  the  past  and 
the  stern  demands  of  the  present,  there  sounds  in  the 
soul's  ear  the  message  of  the  future,  <^he  summons  to 


vi.  1-5.]     OUR  Bl< OTHER'S  BURDEN  AND  OUR  OWN     403 


our  final  reckoning.  Each  of  us  has  his  own  life-load, 
made  up  of  this  triple  burden.  A  thousand  varying 
circumstances  and  individual  experiences  go  to  consti- 
tute the  ever-growing  load  which  we  bear  with  us  from 
youth  to  age,  like  the  wayfarer  his  bundle,  like  the 
soldier  his  knapsack  and  accoutrements — the  indivi- 
dual lot,  the  peculiar  untransferable  vocation  and 
responsibility  fastened  by  the  hand  of  God  upon  our 
shoulders.  This  burden  we  shall  have  to  carry  up  to 
Christ's  judgement-seat.  He  is  our  Master;  He  alone 
can  give  us  our  discharge.  His  lips  must  pronounce 
the  final  **  Well  done" — or,  "Thou  wicked  and  slothful 
servant ! " 

In  this  sentence  the  Apostle  employs  a  different 
word  from  that  used  in  ver.  2.  There  he  was  thinking 
of  the  weight,  the  biirdcnsomencss  of  our  brother's 
troubles,  which  we  haply  may  lighten  for  him,  and 
which  is  S(5  far  common  property.  But  the  second 
word,  (popriov  (applied  for  instance  to  a  ship's  lading)^ 
indicates  that  ivhich  is  proper  to  each  in  the  burdens 
of  life.  There  are  duties  that  we  have  no  power  to 
devolve,  cares  and  griefs  that  we  must  bear  in  secret, 
problems  that  we  must  work  out  severally  and  for 
ourselves.  To  consider  them  aright,  to  weigh  well  the 
sum  of  our  duty  will  dash  our  self-complacency;  it  will 
surely  make  us  serious  and  humble.  Let  us  wake 
up  from  dreams  of  self-pleasing  to  an  earnest,  manly 
apprehension  of  life's  demands — "while,"  like  the 
Apostle,  "  we  look  not  at  the  things  which  are  seen, 
but  at  the  things  which  are  not  seen  and  eternal" 
(2  Cor.  iv.  18). 

After  all,  it  is  the  men  who  have  the  highest  standard 
for  themselves  that  as  a  rule  are  most  considerate  \w 


404  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

their  estimate  of  others.  The  holiest  are  the  most 
pitiful.  They  know  best  how  to  enter  into  the  struggles 
of  a  weaker  brother.  They  can  appreciate  his  un- 
successful resistance  to  temptation  ;  they  can  discern 
where  and  how  he  has  failed,  and  how  much  of  genuine 
sorrow  there  is  in  his  remorse.  From  the  fulness  of 
their  own  experience  they  can  interpret  a  possibility  of 
better  things  in  what  excites  contempt  in  those  who 
judge  by  appearance  and  by  conventional  rules.  He 
who  has  learned  faithfully  to  "consider  himself"  and 
meekly  to  "  bear  his  own  burden,"  is  most  fit  to  do 
the  work  of  Christ,  and  to  shepherd  His  tempted  and 
straying  sheep.  Strict  with  ourselves,  we  shall  grow 
wise  and  gentle  in  our  care  for  others. 

In  the  Christian  conscience  the  sense  of  personal 
and  that  of  social  responsibility  serve  each  to  stimulate 
and  guard  the  other.  Duty  and  sympathy,  love  and 
law  are  fused  into  one.  For  Christ  is  all  in  all ;  and 
these  two  hemispheres  of  life  unite  in  Him, 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

SOWING    AND    REAPING. 

"But  let  him  that  is  taught  in  the  word  communicate  unto  him 
that  teacheth  in  all  good  things.  Be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not 
mocked  :  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap.  For 
he  that  soweth  unto  his  own  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption  ; 
but  he  that  soweth  unto  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  eternal  life. 
And  let  us  not  be  weary  in  well-doing:  for  in  due  season  we  shall 
reap,  if  we  faint  not.  So  then,  as  we  have  opportunity,  let  us  work 
that  which  is  good  toward  all  men,  and  especially  toward  them  that 
are  of  the  household  of  the  faith" — Gal.  vi.  6 — lo. 

Z7  ACH  shall  bear  his  own  burden  (ver.  5) — bullet  there 
be  connminion  of  disciple  with  teacher  in  all  that  is 
good.  The  latter  sentence  is  clearly  intended  to  balance 
the  former.  The  transition  turns  upon  the  same 
antithesis  between  social  and  individual  responsibility 
that  occupied  us  in  the  foregoing  Chapter.  But  it  is 
now  presented  on  another  side.  In  the  previous 
passage  it  concerned  the  conduct  of  "  the  spiritual  " 
toward  erring  brethren  whom  they  were  tempted  to 
despise  ;  here,  their  behaviour  toward  teachers  whom 
they  were  disposed  to  neglect.  There  it  is  inferiors, 
here  superiors  that  are  in  view.  The  Galatian  "  vain- 
glory "  manifested  itself  alike  in  provocation  toward 
the  former,  and  in  envy  toward  the  latter  (ch.  v.  26). 
In  both  ways  it  bred  disaffection,  and  threatened  to 
break  up  the  Church's  unity  The  two  effects  are 
perfectly  consistent.      Those  who  are  harsh   in   their 


4o6  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

dealings  with  the  weak,  are  commonly  rude  and  insub- 
ordinate toward  their  betters,  where  they  dare  to  be 
so.  Self-conceit  and  self-sufficiency  engender  in  the 
one  direction  a  cold  contempt,  in  the  other  a  jealous 
independence.  The  former  error  is  corrected  by  a  due 
sense  of  our  own  infirmities ;  the  latter  by  the  con- 
sideration of  our  responsibility  to  God.  We  are 
compelled  to  feel  for  the  burdens  of  others  when  we 
realise  the  weight  of  our  own.  We  learn  to  respect 
the  claims  of  those  placed  over  us,  when  we  remember 
what  we  owe  to  God  through  them.  Personal  responsi- 
bility is  the  last  word  of  the  former  paragraph ;  social 
responsibility  is  the  first  word  of  this.  Such  is  the 
contrast  marked  by  the  transitional  But. 

From  this  point  of  view  ver.  6  gains  a  very  com- 
prehensive sense,  ''All  good  things"  cannot  surely 
be  limited  to  the  ''carnal  things"  of  I  Cor.  ix.  1 1.  As 
Meyer  and  Beet  amongst  recent  commentators  clearly 
show,  the  context  gives  to  this  phrase  a  larger  scope. 
At  the  same  time,  there  is  no  necessity  to  exclude  the 
thought  of  temporal  good.  The  Apostle  designedly 
makes  his  appeal  as  wide  as  possible.  The  reasoning 
of  the  corresponding  passage  in  the  Corinthian  letter 
is  a  deduction  from  the  general  principle  laid  down 
here. 

But  it  is  spiritual  fellowship  that  the  Apostle  chiefly 
desiderates.  The  true  minister  of  Christ  counts  this 
vastly  more  sacred,  and  has  this  interest  far  more  at 
heart  than  his  own  temporalities.  He  labours  for  the 
unity  of  the  Church ;  he  strives  to  secure  the  mutual 
sympathy  and  co-operation  of  all  orders  and  ranks 
teachers  and  taught,  officers  and  private  members — "  in 
every  good  word  and  work."  He  must  have  the  heart 
of  his  people  with  him  in  his  work,  or  his  joy  will  be 


vI.6-10.]  SCH7XG  AND   REAPIXC.  407 

faint  and  his  success  scant  indcetl.  Christian  teaching 
is  designed  to  awaken  this  sympathetic  response.  And 
it  will  take  expression  in  the  rendering  of  whatever 
kind  of  help  the  gifts  and  means  of  the  hearer  and 
the  needs  of  the  occasion  call  for.  Paul  requires  every 
member  of  the  Body  of  Christ  to  make  her  wants  and 
toils  his  own.  We  have  no  right  to  leave  the  burdens 
of  the  Church's  work  to  her  leaders,  to  expect  her 
battles  to  be  fought  and  won  by  the  officers  alone. 
This  neglect  has  been  the  parent  of  innumerable 
mischiefs.  Indolence  in  the  laity  fosters  sacerdotalism 
in  the  clergy.  But  when,  on  the  contrary,  an  active, 
sympathetic  union  is  maintained  between  "him  that  is 
taught "  and  "  him  that  teacheth,"  that  other  matter  of 
the  temporal  support  of  the  Christian  ministry,  to  which 
this  text  is  so  often  exclusively  referred,  comes  in  as 
a  necessary  detail,  to  be  generously  and  prudently 
arranged,  but  which  will  not  be  felt  on  either  side  as 
a  burden  or  a  difficulty.  Everything  depends  on  the 
fellowship  of  spirit,  on  the  strength  of  the  bond  of  love 
that  knits  together  the  members  of  the  Body  of  Christ. 
Here,  in  Galatia,  that  bond  had  been  grievously 
weakened.  In  a  Church  so  disturbed,  the  fellowship 
of  teachers  and  taught  was  inevitably  strained. 

Such  communion  the  Apostle  craves  from  his  children 
in  the  faith  with  an  intense  yearning.  This  is  the  one 
fruit  of  God's  grace  in  them  which  he  covets  to  reap 
for  himself,  and  feels  he  has  a  right  to  expect.  "  Be 
ye  as  I  am,"  he  cries — "  do  not  desert  me,  my  children, 
for  whom  I  travail  in  birth.  Let  me  not  have  to  toil 
for  you  in  vain  "  (ch.  iv.  12 — 19).  So  again,  writing  to 
the  Corinthians  :  "  It  was  /  that  begat  you  in  Christ 
Jesus  ;  I  beseech  you  then,  be  followers  of  me.  Let  me 
remind  you  of  my  ways   in  the  Lord.  .  .  O  ye  Cor- 


4o8  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

inthians,  to  you  our  mouth  is  open,  our  heart  enlarged. 
Pay  me  back  in  kind  (you  are  my  children),  and  be  ye 
too  enlarged"  (i  Cor.  iv.  14 — 17;  2  Cor.  vi.  II — 13). 
He  "  thanks  God "  for  the  Philippians  "  on  every 
remembrance  of  them,"  and  "  makes  his  supplication  " 
for  them  ^' with  joy,  because  of  their  fellowship  in 
regard  to  the  gospel  from  the  first  day  until  now " 
(Phil.  i.  3 — 7).  Such  is  the  fellowship  which  Paul 
wished  to  see  restored  in  the  Galatian  Churches. 

In  ver.  10  he  extends  his  appeal  to  embrace  in  it  all 
the  kindly  offices  of  life.  For  the  love  inspired  by  the 
Church,  the  service  rendered  to  her,  should  quicken  all 
our  human  sympathies  and  make  us  readier  to  meet 
every  claim  of  pity  or  affection.  While  our  sympathies, 
like  those  of  a  loving  family,  will  be  concerned  "  espe- 
cially "  with  "  the  household  of  faith,"  and  within  that 
circle  more  especially  with  our  pastors  and  teachers  in 
Christ,  they  have  no  limit  but  that  of  "opportunity;" 
they  should  "work  that  which  is  good  toward  all  men." 
True  zeal  for  the  Church  widens  instead  of  narrowing, 
our  charities.  Household  affection  is  the  nursery,  not 
the  rival,  of  love  to  our  fatherland  and  to  humanity. 

Now  the  Apostle  is  extremely  urgent  in  this  matter 
of  communion  between  teachers  and  taught.  It  con- 
cerns the  very  life  of  the  Christian  community.  The 
welfare  of  the  Church  and  the  progress  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  depend  on  the  degree  to  which  its  individual 
members  accept  their  responsibility  in  its  affairs.  Ill- 
will  towards  Christian  teachers  is  paralyzing  in  its 
effects  on  the  Church's  life.  Greatly  are  they  to  blame, 
if  their  conduct  gives  rise  to  discontent.  Only  less 
severe  is  the  condemnation  of  those  in  lower  place  who 
harbour  in  themselves  and  foster  in  the  minds  of  others 
sentiments  of  disloyalty.     To  cherish  this  mistrust,  to 


vi.e-io.J  SOllING  AND  REAVING.  40.^ 


withhold  our  sympathy  from  him  who  serves  us  in 
spiritual  things,  this,  the  Apostle  declares,  is  not  merely 
a  wrong  done  to  the  man,  it  is  an  afTrr.nt  to  God 
I  limself.  If  it  be  God's  Word  that  His  servant  teaches, 
then  God  expects  some  fitting  return  to  be  made  for 
the  gift  He  has  bestowed.  Of  that  return  the  pecuniary 
contribution,  the  meed  of  "carnal  things"  with  which 
so  many  seem  to  think  their  debt  discharged,  is  often 
the  least  and  easiest  part.  How  far  have  men  a  right 
to  be  hearers — profited  and  believing  hearers — in  the 
Christian  congregation,  and  yet  decline  the  duties  of 
Church  fellowship  ?  They  eat  the  Church's  bread, 
but  will  not  do  her  work.  They  expect  like  children 
to  be  fed  and  nursed  and  waited  on  ;  they  think  that 
if  they  pay  their  minister  tolerably  well,  they  have 
"communicated  with"  him  quite  sufficiently.  This 
apathy  has  much  the  same  effect  as  the  Galatian 
bickerings  and  jealousies.  It  robs  the  Church  of  the 
help  of  the  children  whom  she  has  nourished  and 
brought  up.  Those  who  act  thus  are  trying  in  reality 
to  "  mock  God."  They  expect  Him  to  sow  his  bounties 
upon  them,  but  will  not  let  Him  reap.  They  refuse 
Him  the  return  that  He  most  requires  for  His  choicest 
benefits. 

Now,  the  Apostle  says,  God  is  not  to  be  defrauded 
In  this  way.  Men  may  wrong  each  other  ;  they  may 
grieve  and  affront  His  ministers.  But  no  man  is  clever 
enough  to  cheat  God.  It  is  not  Him,  it  is  themselves 
they  will  prove  to  have  deceived.  \'ain  and  selfish 
men  who  take  the  best  that  God  and  man  can  do  for 
them  as  though  it  were  a  tribute  to  their  greatness, 
envious  and  restless  men  who  break  the  Church's 
fellowship  of  peace,  will  reap  at  last  even  as  they  sow. 
The  mischief  and  the  loss  may  fall  on  olheis  new;  but 


410  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

in  its  full  ripeness  it  will  come  in  the  end  upon  them- 
selves. The  final  reckoning  awaits  us  in  another  world. 
And  as  we  act  by  God  and  by  His  Church  now,  in  our 
day,  so  He  will  act  hereafter  by  us  in  His  day. 

Thus  the  Apostle,  in  vv.  6  and  7,  places  this  matter 
in  the  searching  light  of  eternity.  He  brings  to  bear 
upon  it  one  of  the  great  spiritual  maxims  characteristic 
of  his  teaching.  Paul's  unique  influence  as  a  religious 
teacher  lies  in  his  mastery  of  principles  of  this  kind, 
in  the  keenness  of  insight  and  the  incomparable  vigour 
with  which  he  applies  eternal  truths  to  commonplace 
occurrences.  The  paltriness  and  vulgarity  of  these 
local  broils  and  disaffections  lend  to  his  warning  a  more 
severe  impressiveness.  With  what  a  startling  and 
sobering  force,  one  thinks,  the  rebuke  of  these  verses 
must  have  fallen  on  the  ears  of  the  wrangling  Galatians ! 
How  unspeakably  mean  their  quarrels  appear  in  the 
light  of  the  solemn  issues  opening  out  before  them  I 
It  was  God  whom  their  folly  had  presumed  to  mock. 
It  was  the  harvest  of  eternal  life  of  which  their  factious- 
ness threatened  to  defraud  them. 

The  principle  on  which  this  warning  rests  is  stated 
in  terms  that  give  it  universal  application :  Whatso- 
ever a  man  sowcth^  that  shall  he  also  reap.  This  is 
in  fact  the  postulate  of  all  moral  responsibility.  It 
asserts  the  continuity  of  personal  existence,  the  connec- 
tion of  cause  and  effect  in  human  character.  It  makes 
man  the  master  of  his  own  destiny.  It  declares  that 
his  future  doom  hangs  upon  his  present  choice,  and  is 
.  in  truth  its  evolution  and  consummation.  The  twofold 
lot  of  "corruption"  or  "life  eternal"  is  in  every  case 
no  more,  and  no  less,  than  the  proper  harvest  of  the 
kind  of  sowing  practised  here  and  now.     The  use  made 


vi.  6-10.]  SOir/XG  A.VI)   REAI'lXr,.  411 


of  our  seed-time  determines  exactly,  and  with  a  nioial 
certainty  greater  even  than  that  which  rules  in  the 
natural  field,  what  kind  of  fruitage  our  immortality  will 
render, 

Thisgreat  axiom  deserves  to  be  looked  at  in  its  broadest 
aspect.     It  involves  the  following  considerations  : — 

I.  Our  present  life  is  the  seed-time  oj  an  eternal  harvest. 

Each  recurring  year  presents  a  mirror  of  human 
existence.  The  analogy  is  a  commonplace  of  the 
world's  poetry.  The  spring  is  in  every  land  a  picture 
of  youth — its  morning  freshness  and  innocence,  its 
laughing  sunshine,  its  opening  blossoms,  its  bright 
and  buoyant  energy ;  and,  alas,  oftentimes  its  cold 
winds  and  nipping  frosts  and  early,  sudden  blight  I 
Summer  images  a  vigorous  manhood,  with  all  the 
powers  in  action  and  the  pulses  of  life  beating  at  full 
swing  ;  when  the  dreams  of  youth  are  worked  out  in 
sober,  waking  earnest ;  when  manly  strength  is  tested 
and  matured  under  the  heat  of  mid-day  toil,  and 
character  is  disciplined,  and  success  or  failure  in  life's 
battle  must  be  determined.  Then  follows  mellow 
autumn,  season  of  shortening  days  and  slackening 
steps  and  gathering  snows  ;  season  too  of  ripe  experi- 
ence, of  chastened  thought  and  feeling,  of  widened 
influence  and  clustering  honours.  And  the  story  ends 
in  the  silence  and  winter  of  the  grave  1  Ends  ?  Nay, 
that  is  a  new  beginning  !  This  whole  round  of  earthly 
vicissitude  is  but  a  single  spring-time.  It  is  the  mere 
childhood  of  man's  existence,  the  threshold  of  the  vast 
house  of  life. 

The  oldest  and  wisest  man  amongst  us  is  only  a 
little  child  in  the  reckoning  of  eternity.  The  Apostle 
Paul  counted  himself  no  more.  "  We  know  in  part," 
he  says;    *' we   prophesy   in    part— talking,   reasf.j.ii  g 


412  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

like  children.  We  shall  become  men,  seeing  face  to 
face,  knowing  as  we  are  known  "  (i  Cor.  xiii.  8,  II,  12). 
Do  we  not  ourselves  feel  this  in  our  higher  moods  ? 
There  is  an  instinct  of  immortalitN^  a  forecasting  of 
some  ampler  existence,  "  a  stirring  of  blind  life  "  within 
the  soul ;  there  are  visionary  gleams  of  an  unearthly 
Paradise  haunting  at  times  the  busiest  and  most  un- 
imaginative men.  We  are  intelligences  in  the  germ, 
lying  folded  up  in  the  chrysalis  stage  of  our  existence. 
Eyes,  wings  are  still  to  come.  "It  doth  not  yet  appear 
what  we  shall  be,"  no  more  than  he  who  had  seen  but 
the  seed-sowing  of  early  spring  and  the  bare  wintry 
furrows,  could  imagine  what  the  golden,  waving  harvest 
would  be  like.  There  is  a  glorious,  everlasting  kingdom 
of  heaven,  a  world  which  in  its  duration,  its  range  of 
action  and  experience,  its  style  of  equipment  and 
occupation,  will  be  worthy  of  the  elect  children  of  God. 
Worship,  music,  the  purest  passages  of  human  affection 
and  of  moral  elevation,  may  give  us  some  foretaste  of 
its  joys.  But  what  it  will  be  really  like,  "  Eye  hath 
not  seen,  nor  ear  heard ;  nor  heart  of  man  conceived." 
Think  of  that,  struggling  heart,  worn  with  labour, 
broken  by  sorrow^,  cramped  and  thwarted  by  the  pres- 
sure of  an  unkindly  world.  *'  The  earnest  expectancy 
of  the  creation"  waits  for  your  revealing  (Rom.  viii. 
19).  You  will  have  your  enfranchisement;  your  soul 
will  take  wing  at  last.  Only  have  faith  in  God,  and 
in  righteousness  ;  only  "  be  not  weary  in  well-doing." 
Those  crippled  powers  will  get  their  full  play.  Those 
baffled  purposes  and  frustrated  affections  will  unfold 
and  blossom  into  a  completeness  undreamed  of  now,  in 
the  sunshine  of  heaven,  in  "  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of 
the  sons  of  God."  Why  look  for  your  harvest  here  ! 
It  is  March,  not  August  yet.     "  In  due  season  we  shall 


vi.6-io.]  SOWING  AND  REAriXG.  413 


reap,  if  we  faint  not."  See  to  it  that  you  "sow  to 
the  Spirit,"  that  your  life  be  of  the  true  seed  of  the 
kingdom  ;  and  for  the  rest,  have  no  care  nor  fear. 
What  should  we  think  of  the  farmer  who  in  winter, 
when  his  fields  were  frost-bound,  should  go  about 
wringing  his  hands  and  crying  that  his  labour  was  all 
lost!  Are  we  wiser  in  our  despondent  moods?  How- 
ever dreary  and  unpromising,  however  poor  and  paltry 
in  its  outward  seeming  the  earthly  seed-time,  your 
life's  work  will  have  its  resurrection.  Heaven  lies 
hidden  in  those  daily  acts  of  humble,  difiicult  duty, 
even  as  the  giant  oak  with  its  centuries  of  growth  and 
all  its  summer  glory  sleeps  in  the  acorn-cup.  No  eye 
may  see  it  now  ;  but  "  the  Day  will  declare  it  I " 

n.  In    the    second    place,    the   quality  of  the  future 
harvest  depends  entirely  on  the  present  sowing. 

In  quantity^  as  we  have  seen,  in  outward  state  and 
circumstance,  there  is  a  complete  contrast.  The 
harvest  surpasses  the  seed  from  which  it  sprang,  by 
thirty,  sixty  or  a  hundred-fold.  But  in  quality  we  find 
a  strict  agreement.  In  degree  they  may  differ  in- 
finitely ;  in  kind  they  are  one.  The  harvest  multiplies 
the  effect  of  the  sower's  labour ;  but  it  multiplies 
exactly  that  effect,  and  nothing  else.  This  law  runs 
through  all  life.  If  we  could  not  count  upon  it,  labour 
would  be  purposeless  and  useless ;  we  should  have  to 
yield  ourselves  passively  to  nature's  caprice.  The 
farmer  sows  wheat  in  his  cornfield,  the  gardener  plants 
and  trains  his  fig-tree ;  and  he  gets  wheat,  or  figs,  for 
his  reward— nothing  else.  Or  is  he  a  "sluggard" 
that  "  will  not  plow  by  reason  of  the  cold  ?  "  Does  he 
let  weeds  and  thistledown  have  the  run  of  his  garden- 
plot  ?  Then  it  yields  him  a  plentiful  harvest  of  thistles 
and  of  weeds  1     What  could  he  expect  ?     "  Men  do  not 


4T4  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles."  From 
the  highest  to  the  lowest  order  of  living  things,  each 
grows  and  fructifies  ^' after  its  kind."  This  is  the  rule 
of  nature,  the  law  which  constituted  Nature  at  the 
beginning.  The  good  tree  brings  forth  good  fruit ; 
and  the  good  seed  makes  the  good  tree. 

All  this  has  its  moral  counterpart.  The  law  of  re- 
production in  kind  holds  equally  true  of  the  relation  of 
this  life  to  the  next.  Eternity  for  us  will  be  the  multi- 
plied, consummated  outcome  of  the  good  or  evil  of  the 
present  life.  Hell  is  just  sin  ripe — rotten  ripe.  Heaven 
is  the  fruitage  of  righteousness.  There  will  be  two  kinds 
of  reaping,  the  Apostle  tells  us,  because  there  are  two 
different  kinds  of  sowing.  "  He  that  soweth  to  his  flesh, 
shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption  : "  there  is  nothing 
arbitrary  or  surprising  in  that.  "  Corruption  " — the 
moral  decay  and  dissolution  of  the  man's  being — is  the 
natural  retributive  effect  of  his  carnality.  And  "he 
that  soweth  to  the  Spirit,  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life 
everlasting."  Here,  too,  the  sequence  is  inevitable. 
Like  breeds  its  like.  Life  springs  of  life ;  and  death 
eternal  is  the  culmination  of  the  soul's  present  death  to 
God  and  goodness.  The  future  glory  of  the  saints  is 
at  once  a  Divine  reward,  and  a  necessary  development 
of  their  present  faithfulness.  And  eternal  life  lies 
germinally  contained  in  faith's  earliest  beginning,  when 
it  is  but  as  *'  a  grain  of  mustard  seed."  We  may 
expect  in  our  final  state  the  outcome  of  our  present 
conduct,  as  certainly  as  the  farmer  who  puts  wheat  into 
his  furrows  in  November  will  count  on  getting  wheat 
out  of  them  again  next  August. 

Under  this  law  of  the  harvest  we  are  living  at  this 
moment,  and  sowing  every  day  the  seed  of  an  immor- 
tality of  honour  or  of  shame.     Life  is  the  seed-plot  of 


vi.6.io.]  SOW'IXC  AXn   KF.AriXC.  -415 


eternity  ;   and  youtJi   is  above  all  the  seed-time  of  life. 

What  aie  our  children  doing  with  these  precious,  vernal 

years  ?      What    is    going    into    their    minds  ?      What 

ideas,   what    desires   are   rooting    themselves    in   these 

young  souls  ?    If  it  be  pure  thoughts  and  true  affections, 

love  to  God,  self-denial,  patience  and  humility,  courage 

to   do  what  is   right — if  these  be  the  things  that  are 

sown  in  their  hearts,  there  will  be  for  them,  and  for  us, 

a  glorious  harvest  of  wisdom  and  love  and  honour  in 

the  years  to  come,  and  in  the  day  of  eternity.     But  if 

sloth  and  deceit  be  there,  and  unholy  thoughts,  vanity 

and  envy  and   self-indulgence,  theirs  will   be   a  bitter 

harvesting.     Men  talk  of  "sowing  their  wild  oats,"  as 

though  that  were  an  end  of  it ;  as  though  a  wild  and 

prodigal    youth   might   none   the  less   be    followed    by 

a  sober  manhood  and  an  honoured  old  age.     But  it  is 

not  so.     If  wild   oats  have  been   sown,  there  will  be 

wild    oats    to    reap,    as    certainly    as    autumn    follows 

spring.      For   every  time    the    youth    deceives    parent 

or   teacher,   let    him   know    that    he   will    be   deceived 

by  the    Father  of  lies   a  hundred    times.     For   every 

impure  thought  or  dishonourable  word,  shame  will  come 

upon  him  sixty-fold.     If  his  mind  be  filled  with  trash 

and  refuse,  then  trash  and  refuse  are  all  it  will  be  able 

to  produce.     If  the  good  seed   be  not   timely  sown   in 

his  heart,  thorns  and  nettles  will  sow  themselves  tiK-re 

fast  enough  ;  and  his  soul  will  become  like  the  sluggard's 

garden,  rank  with  base  weeds  and  poison-plants,  a  place 

where  all  vile  things  will  have  their  resort, — ''rejected 

and  nigh  unto  a  curse." 

Who  is  "he  that  soweth  to  his  own  flesh  ?"  It  is, 
in  a  word,  the  selfish  man.  He  makes  his  personal 
interest,  and  as  a  rule  his  bodily  pleasure,  directly  or 
ultimately,  the  object  of  life.     The  sense  of  responsi- 


4i6  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS, 


bility  to  God,  the  thought  of  life  as  a  stewardship  of 
which  one  must  give  account,  have  no  place  in  his 
mind.  He  is  a  "  lover  of  pleasure  rather  than  a  lover 
of  God."  His  desires,  unfixed  on  God,  steadily  tend 
downwards.  Idolatry  of  self  becomes  slavery  to  the 
flesh.  Every  act  of  selfish  pleasure-seeking,  untouched 
by  nobler  aims,  weakens  and  worsens  the  soul's  life. 
The  selfish  man  gravitates  downward  into  the  sensual 
man ;  the  sensual  man  downward  into  the  bottom- 
less pit. 

This  is  the  "  minding  of  the  flesh  "  which  "  is  death  " 
(Rom.  viii.  5 — 8,  13).  For  it  is  "enmity  against  God" 
and  defiance  of  His  law.  It  overthrows  the  course  of 
nature,  the  balance  of  our  human  constitution  ;  it  brings 
disease  into  the  frame  of  our  being.  The  flesh,  unsub- 
dued and  uncleansed  by  the  virtue  of  the  Spirit,  breeds 
"  corruption."  Its  predominance  is  the  sure  presage  of 
death.  The  process  of  decay  begins  already,  this  side 
the  grave;  and  it  is  often  made  visible  by  appalling 
signs.  The  bloated  face,  the  sensual  leer,  the  restless, 
vicious  eye,  the  sullen  brow  tell  us  what  is  going  on 
within.  The  man's  soul  is  rotting  in  his  body.  Lust 
and  greed  are  eating  out  of  him  the  capacity  for  good. 
And  if  he  passes  on  to  the  eternal  harvest  as  he  is,  if 
that  fatal  corruption  is  not  arrested,  what  doom  can 
possibly  await  such  a  man  but  that  of  which  our 
merciful  Saviour  spoke  so  plainly  that  we  might 
tremble  and  escape — "  the  worm  that  dieth  not,  and  the 
fire  that  is  not  quenched  ! " 

III.  And  finally,  God  Himself  is  the  Lord  of  the  moral 
harvest.  The  rule  of  retribution,  the  nexus  that  binds 
together  our  sowing  and  our  reaping,  is  not  some- 
thing auton^atic  and  that  comes  about  of  itself;  it  is 
uiic  ted  by  the  will  of  God,  who  "  worketh  all  in  all." 


vi.<i-io.]  SOny.VG  AND   REAPING.  417 


Even  in  the  natural  harvest  we  look  upwards  to  Him. 
The  order  and  re.i^ularity  of  nature,  the  fair  procession 
of  the  seasons  waiting  on  the  silent  and  majestic  march 
of  the  heavens,  have  in  all  ages  directed  thinking  and 
grateful  men  to  the  Supreme  Giver,  to  the  creative  Mind 
and  sustaining  Will  that  sits  above  the  worlds.  As 
Paul  reminded  the  untutored  Lycaonians,  "  He  hath 
not  left  Himself  without  witness,  in  that  He  gave  us 
rains  from  heaven  and  fruitful  seasons,  filling  our  hearts 
with  food  and  gladness."  It  is  "God"  that  ''gives 
the  increase"  of  the  husbandman's  toil,  of  the  merchant's 
forethought,  of  the  artist's  genius  and  skill.  We  do 
not  sing  our  harvest  songs,  with  our  Pagan  forefathers, 
to  sun  and  rain  and  west  wind,  to  mother  Earth  and 
the  mystic  powers  of  Nature.  In  these  poetic  idolatries 
were  yet  blended  higher  thoughts  and  a  sense  of  Divine 
beneficence.  But  "to  us  there  is  one  God,  the  Father, 
of  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  for  Him  ;  and  one  Lord, 
Jesus  Christ,  through  whom  are  all  things,  and  we 
through  Him."  In  the  harvest  of  the  earth  man  is  a 
worker  together  with  God.  The  farmer  does  his  part, 
fulfilling  the  conditions  God  has  laid  down  in  nature; 
"  he  putteth  in  the  wheat  in  rows,  and  the  barley  in  its 
appointed  place  ;  for  his  God  doth  instruct  him  aright, 
and  doth  teach  him."  He  tills  the  ground,  he  sows 
the  seed — and  there  he  leaves  it  to  God.  "  He  sleeps 
and  rises  night  and  day;  and  the  seed  springs  and 
grows  up,  he  knows  not  how."  And  the  wisest  man  01 
science  cannot  tell  him  how.  "God  giveth  it  a  body, 
as  it  hath  pleased  Him."  But  //ozf— that  is  His  own 
secret,  which  He  seems  likely  to  keep.  All  life  in  its 
growth,  as  in  its  inception,  is  a  mystery,  hid  with  Christ 
in  God.  Every  seed  sown  in  field  or  garden  is  a  deposit 
committed  to  the  faithfulness  of  God  ;  which  He  honours 

27 


4i8  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


by  raising  it  up  again,  thirty,  sixty,  or  a  hundred-fold, 
in  the  increase  of  the  harvest. 

In  the  moral  world  this  Divine  co-operation  is  the 
more  immediate,  as  the  field  of  action  lies  nearer,  if  one 
may  so  say,  to  the  nature  of  God  Himself.  The  earthly 
harvest  may,  and  does  often  fail.  Storms  waste  it; 
blights  canker  it ;  drought  withers,  or  fire  consumes  it. 
Industry  and  skill,  spent  in  years  of  patient  labour,  are 
doomed  not  unfrequently  to  see  their  reward  snatched 
from  them.  The  very  abundance  of  other  lands  deprives 
our  produce  of  its  value.  The  natural  creation  *'  was 
made  subject  to  vanity."  Its  frustration  and  disappoint- 
ment are  over-ruled  for  higher  ends.  But  in  the 
spiritual  sphere  there  are  no  casualties,  no  room  for 
accident  or  failure.  Here  life  comes  directly  into  con- 
tact with  the  Living  God,  its  fountain ;  and  its  laws 
partake  of  His  absoluteness. 

Each  act  of  faith,  of  worship,  of  duty  and  integrity, 
is  a  compact  between  the  soul  and  God.  We  ^^  commit 
our  souls  in  well-doing  unto  a  faithful  Creator" 
(i  Pet.  iv.  19).  By  every  such  volition  the  heart  is 
yielding  itself  to  the  direction  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  It 
"  sows  unto  the  Spirit,"  whenever  in  thought  or  deed 
His  prompting  is  obeyed  and  His  will  made  the  law 
of  life.  And  as  in  the  soil,  by  the  Divine  chemistry 
of  nature,  the  tiny  germ  is  nursed  and  fostered  out  of 
sight,  till  it  lifts  itself  from  the  sod  a  lovely  flower,  a 
perfect  fruit,  so  in  the  order  of  grace  it  will  prove 
that  from  the  smallest  seeds  of  goodness  in  human 
hearts,  from  the  feeblest  beginnings  of  the  life  of  faith, 
from  the  lowliest  acts  of  love  and  service,  God  in  due 
season  will  raise  up  a  glorious  harvest  for  which  heaven 
itself  will  be  the  richer. 


THE    EPILOGUE. 
Chapter  vi.  ii — 1 8. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE  FALSE  AND  THE  TRUE  GLORYING. 

"  See  witli  how  large  letters  I  write  unto  you  with  mine  own 
hand.  As  many  as  desire  to  make  a  fair  show  in  the  flesh,  Ihcy 
compel  you  to  be  circumcised  ;  only  that  they  may  not  be  persecuted 
for  the  cross  of  Christ.  For  not  even  they  who  receive  circumcision 
do  themselves  keep  the  law  ;  but  they  desire  to  have  you  circumcised, 
that  they  may  glory  in  your  flesh.  But  far  be  it  from  me  to  glory, 
save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  through  which  the  world 
hath  been  crucified  unto  me,  and  I  unto  the  world."' — Gau  vi.  II  — 14. 

THE  rendering  of  ver.  1 1  in  the  Authorised  Version 
is  clearly  erroneous  {see  how  large  a  letter). 
Wickliff,  guided  by  the  Latin  Vulgate — with  what  ttiancr 
Icttris — escaped  this  error.  It  is  a  plural  term  the 
Apostle  uses,  which  occasionally  in  Greek  writers 
denotes  an  epistle  (as  in  Acts  xxviii.  21),  but  nowhere 
else  in  Paul.  Moreover  the  noun  is  in  the  dative  (in- 
strumental) case,  and  cannot  be  made  the  object  of 
the  verb. 

Paul  draws  attention  at  this  point  to  his  penmanship, 
to  the  size  of  the  letters  he  is  using  and  their  autogra- 
phic form.  "See,"  he  says,  "I  write  this  in  large 
characters,  and  under  my  own  hand."  But  does  this 
remark  apply  to  the  whole  Epistle,  or  to  its  concluding 
paragraph  from  this  verse  onwards  ?  To  the  latter 
only,  as  we  think.  The  word  "  look  "  is  a  kind  of  tiota 
bene.  It  marks  something  new,  designed  by  its  form 
and  appearance  in   the  manuscript  to  arrest  the  eye. 


422  7 HE  EPISTLE   10   THE   GALATJANS. 

It  was  Paul's  practice  to  write  through  an  amanuensis, 
adding  with  his  own  hand  a  few  final  words  of  greeting 
or  blessing,  by  way  of  authentication.*  Here  this 
usage  is  varied.  The  Apostle  wishes  to  give  these 
closing  sentences  the  utmost  possible  emphasis  and 
solemnity.  He  would  print  them  on  the  very  heart 
and  soul  of  his  readers.  This  intention  explains  the 
language  of  ver.  1 1  ;  and  it  is  borne  out  by  the  contents 
of  the  verses  that  follow.  They  are  a  postscript,  or 
Epilogue^  to  the  Epistle,  rehearsing  with  incisive  brevity 
the  burden  of  all  that  it  was  in  the  Apostle's  heart  to 
say  to  these  troubled  and  shaken  Galatians. 

The  past  tense  of  the  verb  (literally,  /  have  written  : 
cY/Qa-v^a)  is  in  accordance  with  Greek  epistolary  idiom. 
The  writer  associates  himself  with  his  readers.  When 
the  letter  comes  to  them,  Paul  has  written  what  they 
now  peruse.  On  the  assumption  that  the  whole  Epistle 
is  autographic  it  is  hard  to  see  what  object  the  large 
characters  would  serve,  or  why  they  should  be  referred 
to  just  at  this  point. 

Ver.  II  is  in  fact  a  sensational  heading.  The  last 
paragraph  of  the  Epistle  is  penned  in  larger  type  and 
in  the  Apostle's  characteristic  hand,  in  order  to  fasten 
the  attention  of  these  impressionable  Galatians  upon 
his  final  deliverance.  This  device  Paul  employs  but 
once.  It  is  a  kind  of  practice  easily  vulgarised  and 
that  loses  its  force  by  repetition,  as  in  the  case  of 
"  loud  "  printing  and  declamatory  speech. 

In  this  emphatic  finale  the  interest  of  the  Epistle,  so 
powerfully  sustained  and  carried  through  so  many 
stages,  is  raised  to  a  3'et  higher  pitch.     Its  pregnant 

*  See  2  Thess.    iii.    17,  18;   1  Cor.  xvi.   21 — 23.     In  ver.  22  of  the 

latter  passage  we  can  trace  a  similar  autographic  message,  on  a  smaller 
scale.     Comp.  also  Philemon  19. 


vi.  11-14]     J  HE  FALSE  AXD  IJIE  TKUE  GLOKYING.    423 


sentences  give  us— firs/,  another  and  still  severer 
denunciation  of  "the  troublers"  (vv.  12,  13);  secondly ^ 
a  renewed  protestation  of  the  Apostle's  devotion  to  the 
cross  of  Christ  (vv.  14,  15);  thirdly,  a  repetition  in 
animated  style  of  the  practical  doctrine  of  Christianity, 
and  a  blessing  pronounced  upon  those  who  are  faithful 
to  it  (vv.  15,  16).  A  pathetic  reference  to  the  writer's 
personal  sufferings,  followed  by  the  customary  benedic- 
tion, brings  the  letter  to  a  close.  The  first  two  topics 
of  the  Epilogue  stand  in  immediate  contrast  with  each 
other. 

I.  The  glorying  0/  the  Apostle's  adversaries.  "They 
would  have  you  circumcised,  that  they  may  glory  in 
your  flesh  "  (ver.  12). 

This  is  the  climax  of  his  reproach  against  them.  It 
gives  us  the  key  to  their  character.  The  boast  measures 
the  man.  The  aim  of  the  Legalists  was  to  get  so  many 
Gentiles  circumcised,  to  win  proselytes  through  Christ- 
ianity to  Judaism.  Every  Christian  brother  persuaded 
to  submit  himself  to  this  rite  was  another  trophy  for 
them.  His  circumcision,  apart  from  any  moral  or 
spiritual  considerations  involved  in  the  matter,  was  of 
itself  enough  to  fill  these  prostlytizers  with  joy.  They 
counted  up  their  "cases;"  they  rivalled  each  other  in 
the  competition  for  Jewisli  favour  on  this  ground.  To 
"  glory  in  your  flesh — to  be  able  to  point  to  your 
bodily  condition  as  the  proof  of  their  influence  and 
their  devotion  to  the  Law — this,"  Paul  says,  "  is  the 
object  for  which  they  ply  you  with  so  many  flatteries 
and  soph.istries." 

Their  aim  was  intrinsically  low  and  unworthy. 
They  "want  to  make  a  fair  show  (to  present  a  go<Kl 
face)  in  the  flesh."  Flesh  in  this  place  (ver.  12)  recalls 
the  contrast  between  Flesli  and  Spin't  txpounded  in  the 


424  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


last  chapter.  Paul  does  not  mean  that  the  Judaizers 
wish  to  '^  make  a  good  appearance  in  outward  respects, 
in  human  opinion : "  this  would  be  little  more  than 
tautology.  The  expression  stamps  the  Circumcisionists 
as  ''carnal"  men.  They  are  "not  in  the  Spirit,"  but 
"in  the  flesh;"  and  "after  the  flesh"  they  walk.  It 
is  on  worldly  principles  that  they  seek  to  commend 
themselv^es,  and  to  unspiritual  men.  What  the  Apostle 
sa^^s  of  himself  in  Phil.  iii.  3,  4,  illustrates  by  contrast 
his  estimate  of  the  Judaizers  of  Galatia  :  "  We  are  the 
circumcision,  who  worship  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
glory  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  have  no  confidence  in  the 
flesh."  He  explains  "  having  confidence  in  the  flesh  " 
b}^  enumerating  his  own  advantages  and  distinctions 
as  a  Jew,  the  circumstances  which  commended  him  in 
the  eyes  of  his  fellow-countrymen — "  which  were  gain 
to  me/'  he  says,  "  but  I  counted  them  loss  for  Christ  " 
(ver.  7).  In  that  realm  of  fleehly  motive  and  estimate 
which  Paul  had  abandoned,  his  opponents  still  remained. 
They  had  exchanged  Christian  fidelity  for  worldly 
favour.  And  their  religion  took  the  colour  of  their 
moral  disposition.  To  make  a  fair  show,  an  imposing, 
plausible  appearance  in  ceremonial  and  legal  observance, 
was  the  mark  they  set  themselves.  And  they  sought  to 
draw  the  Church  \\ith  them  in  this  direction,  and  to 
impress  upon  it  their  own  ritualistic  type  of  piety. 

This  was  a  worldly,  and  in  their  case  a  cowardly 
policy.  "They  constrain  you  to  be  circumcised,  only 
that  for  the  cross  of  Christ  they  may  not  suffer  per- 
secution "  (ver.  12).  This  they  were  determined  by 
all  means  to  avoid.  Christ  had  sent  His  servants 
forth  "as  sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves."  The  man 
that  would  serve  Him,  He  said,  must  "  follow  Him, 
taking  up  his  cross."     But  the  Judaists  thought  the}/ 


vi.  II-I4.]     THE  FALSE  AND  THE  TRUE  CLORYING.    425 

knew  better  tlian  this.  They  had  a  plan  by  which 
they  could  be  tlie  friends  ofjtsus  Christ,  and  yet  keep 
on  good  terms  witli  tlie  world  that  crucified  Him. 
They  would  make  their  faith  in  Jesus  a  means  for 
winning  over  proselytes  to  Judaism.  If  they  succeeded 
in  this  design,  their  apostasy  miglit  be  condoned.  The 
circumcised  Gentiles  would  propitiate  the  anger  of  their 
Israelite  kindred,  and  vyould  incline  them  to  look  more 
favourably  upon  the  new  doctrine  Tl^ese  men,  Paul 
says  to  the  Galatians,  are  sacrificing  you  to  their 
cowardice.  They  rob  you  of  your  liberties  in  Christ 
in  order  to  make  a  shield  for  them.selves  against  the 
enmity  of  their  kinsmen.  They  pretend  great  zeal 
on  your  behalf;  they  are  eager  to  introduce  you  into 
the  blessings  of  the  heirs  of  Abraham  :  the  truth  is, 
they  are  victims  of  a  miserable  fear  of  persecution. 

The  cross  of  Christ,  as  the  Apostle  has  repeatedly 
declared  (comp.  Chapters  XII  and  XXI),  carried  with 
it  in  Jewish  eyes  a  flagrant  reproach  ;  and  its  accept- 
ance placed  a  gulf  between  the  Christian  and  tl.e 
orthodox  Jew.  The  depth  of  that  gulf  became  in- 
creasingly apparent  the  more  widely  the  gospel  spread, 
and  the  more  radically  its  j.rinciples  came  to  be  ap- 
plied. To  Paul  it  was  now  sorrowfully  evident  that 
the  Jewish  nation  had  rejected  Christianity.  They 
would  not  hear  the  Apostles  of  Jesus  any  more  than 
the  Master.  For  the  preaching  of  the  cross  they  had 
only  loathing  and  contempt.  Judaism  recognised  in 
the  Church  of  the  Crucified  its  most  dangerous  enemy, 
and  was  opening  the  fire  of  persecution  against  it  all 
along  the  line.  In  this  state  of  affairs,  for  a  party  of 
men  to  compromise  and  make  private  terms  for  them- 
selves with  the  enemies  of  Christ  was  treachery. 
They  were  surrendering,  as  t!iis  Epistle  shows,  all  that 


426  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

was  most  vital  to  Christianity.  They  gave  up  the 
honour  of  the  gospel,  the  rights  of  faith,  the  salvation 
of  the  world,  rather  than  face  the  persecution  in  store 
for  those  '*  who  will  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus." 

Not  that  they  cared  so  much  for  the  law  in  itself. 
Their  glorying  was  insincere^  as  well  as  selfish  ;  "  For 
neither  do  the  circumcised  themselves  keep  the  law. 
— These  men  who  profess  such  enthusiasm  for  the  law 
of  Moses  and  insist  so  zealously  on  your  submission  to 
it,  dishonour  it  by  their  own  behaviour."  The  Apostle 
is  denouncing  the  same  party  throughout.  Some  in- 
terpreters make  the  first  clause  of  ver.  13  a  parenthesis, 
supposing  that  ''  the  circumcised  "  (participle  present : 
those  being  circumcised)  are  Gentile  pei'verts  now  being 
gained  over  to  Judaism,  while  the  foregoing  and 
following  sentences  relate  to  the  Jewish  teachers.  But 
the  context  does  not  intimate,  nor  indeed  allow  such  a 
change  of  subject.  It  is  "  the  circumcised  "  of  ver.  13  a 
who  in  ver.  13  ^  wish  to  see  the  Galatians  circumcised, 
'^  in  order  to  boast  over  their  flesh," — the  same  who,  in 
ver.  12,  "  desire  to  make  a  fair  show  in  the  flesh"  and 
to  escape  Jewish  persecution.  Reading  this  in  the 
light  of  the  previous  chapters,  there  seems  to  us  no 
manner  of  doubt  as  to  the  persons  thus  designated. 
They  are  the  Circumcisionists,  Jewish  Christians  who 
sought  to  persuade  the  Pauline  Gentile  Churches  to 
adopt  circumcision  and  to  receive  their  own  legalistic 
perversion  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  The  present  tense 
of  the  Greek  participle,  used  as  it  is  here  with  the 
definite  article,*  has  the  power  of  becoming  a  substan- 
tive, dropping  its  reference  to  time ;  for  the  act  denoted 

*  ol  'TrepiTefivS/nevot  (Revised  Text).  On  this  idiom,  see  Winer's 
Grammar,  p.  444;  A.  Buttmann's  N.  T.  Grammar,  p.  296.  In  ch.  i. 
23,  and  in  ii.  2  (t.  doKovai),  we  have  had  instances  of  this  usage. 


VI.  II.14.J     THE  FALSE  AND  THE  TRUE  GLORYIXG.     427 


passes  into  an  abiding  characteristic,  so  that  the  ex- 
pression acquires  the  form  of  a  title.  "  The  circum- 
cised "  are  the  men  of  the  circumcision,  those  known 
to  the  Galatians  in  this  character. 

The  phrase  is  susceptible,  however,  of  a  wider  appli- 
cation. When  Paul  writes  thus,  he  is  thinking  of 
others  besides  the  handful  of  troublers  in  Galatia.  In 
Rom.  ii.  17 — 29  he  levels  this  identical  charge  of  hypo- 
critical law-breaking  against  the  Jewish  people  at  large  : 
"Thou  whogloriest  in  the  law,"  he  exclaims,  "  tiirough 
thy  transgression  of  the  law  dishonourest  thou  God  ?  " 
This  shocking  inconsistency,  notorious  in  contemporary 
Judaism,  was  to  be  observed  in  the  conduct  of  the 
legalist  zealots  in  Galatia.  They  broke  themselves  the 
very  law  which  they  tried  to  force  on  others.  Their 
pretended  jealousy  for  the  ordinances  of  Moses  was 
itself  their  condemnation.  It  was  not  the  glory  of  the 
law  they  were  concerned  about,  but  their  own. 

The  policy  of  the  Judaizers  was  dishonourable  both 
in  spirit  and  in  aim.  They  were  false  to  Christ  in 
whom  they  professed  to  believe ;  and  to  the  law  which 
they  pretended  to  keep.  They  were  facing  both  ways, 
studying  the  safest,  not  the  truest  course,  anxious  in 
truth  to  be  friends  at  once  with  the  world  and  Christ. 
Their  conduct  has  found  many  imitators,  in  men  who 
"  make  godliness  a  way  of  gain,"  whose  religious  course 
is  dictated  by  considerations  of  worldly  self-interest. 
A  little  persecution,  or  social  pressure,  is  enough  to 
"turn  them  out  of  the  way."  They  cast  oil  their 
Church  obligations  as  they  change  their  clothes,  to 
suit  the  fashion.  Business  patronage,  professional  ad- 
vancement, a  tempting  family  ahiance,  the  entree  into 
some  select  and  envied  circle — such  are  the  things  for 
which  creeds  are   barteied,   for  which    nun    put  their 


428  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CALATIANS. 

souls  and  the  souls  of  their  children  knowingly  in  peril. 
Will  it  pay  ? — this  is  the  question  which  comes  in 
with  a  decisive  weight  in  their  estimate  of  matters  of 
religious  profession  and  the  things  pertaining  to  God. 
But  ^'  what  shall  it  profit  ?  "  is  the  question  of  Christ. 

Nor  are  they  less  culpable  who  bring  these  motives 
into  play,  and  put  this  kind  of  pressure  on  the  weak 
and  dependent.  There  are  forms  of  social  and 
pecuniary  influence,  bribes  and  threats  quietly  applied 
and  well  understood,  which  are  hardly  to  be  distinguished 
morally  from  persecution.  Let  wealthy  and  dominant 
Churches  see  to  it  that  they  be  clear  of  these  offences, 
that  they  make  themselves  the  protectors,  not  the 
oppressors  of  spiritual  liberty.  The  adherents  that  a 
Church  secures  by  its  worldly  prestige  do  not  in  truth 
belong  to  the  ^'  kingdom  that  is  not  of  this  world." 
Such  successes  are  no  triumphs  of  the  cross.  Christ 
repudiates  them.  The  glorying  that  attends  proselytism 
of  this  kind  is,  like  that  of  Paul's  Judaistic  adversaries, 
a  "  glorying  in  the  flesh." 

II.  "But  as  for  me,"  cries  the  Apostle,  "  far  be  it  to 
glory,  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ "  (ver. 
14).  Paul  knows  but  one  ground  of  exultation,  one 
object  of  pride  and  confidence — his  Saviour's  cross. 

Before  he  had  received  his  gospel  and  seen  the  cross 
in  the  light  of  revelation,  like  other  Jews  he  regarded  it 
with  horror.  Its  existence  covered  the  cause  of  Jesus 
with  ignominy.  It  marked  Him  out  as  the  object 
of  Divine  abhorrence.  To  the  Judaistic  Christian  the 
cross  was  still  an  embarrassment.  He  was  secretly 
ashamed  of  a  crucified  Messiah,  anxious  by  some  means 
to  excuse  the  scandal  and  make  amends  for  it  in  the 
face  of  Jewish  public  opinion.  But  now  this  disgraceful 
cross  in  the  Apostle's  eyes-  is  the  most  glorious  thing 


vi.  II-I4.]     THE  FALSE  AND  7 HE  TKUE  GLORYLWG.     429 


in  the  universe.  Its  message  is  the  good  news  of  God 
to  all  niaiikiiKJ.  It  is  the  eentre  of  faitli  and  religion, 
of  all  that  man  knows  of  God  or  can  receive  from  Ilim. 
Let  it  be  removed,  and  the  entire  structure  of  revela- 
tion falls  to  pieces,  like  an  arch  without  its  keystone, 
rhe  shame  of  the  cross  was  turned  into  honour  and 
majesty.  Its  foolisliness  and  weakness  proved  to  be 
the  wisdom  and  the  power  of  God.  Out  of  the  gloom 
in  which  CaKary  was  shrouded  there  now  shone  forth 
the  clearest  light  of  holiness  and  love. 

Paul  gloried  in  the  cross  of  Christ  because  it  mani- 
fested to  him  the  character  of  God.  The  Divine  love 
and  righteousness,  the  entire  range  of  those  moral 
excellences  which  in  their  sovereign  perfection  belong 
to  the  holiness  of  God,  were  there  displayed  with  a 
vividness  and  splendour  hitherto  inconceivable.  "God 
so  loved  the  world,"  and  yet  so  honoured  the  law  of 
right,  that  "  He  spared  not  His  own  Son,  but  delivered 
Him  up  for  us  all."  How  stupendous  is  this  sacrifice, 
wliich  baffles  the  mind  and  overwhelms  the  heart  ! 
Nowhere  in  the  works  of  creation,  nor  in  any  other 
dispensation  of  justice  or  mercy  touching  human  affairs, 
is  there  a  spectacle  that  appeals  to  us  with  an  effect  to 
be  compared  with  that  of  the  Suflerer  of  Calvary. 

Let  me  look,  let  me  think  again.  Who  is  He  that 
bleeds  on  that  tree  of  shame  ?  Why  does  the  Holy 
One  of  God  submit  to  these  indignities  ?  Why  those 
cruel  wounds,  those  heart-breaking  cries  that  speak  of 
a  soul  pierced  by  sorrows  deeper  than  all  that  bodily 
anguish  can  inflict  ?  Has  the  Almighty  indeed  forsaken 
Him?  Has  the  Evil  One  sealed  his  triumph  in  tie 
blood  of  the  Son  of  God  ?  Is  it  God's  mercy  to  the 
world,  or  is  it  not  rather  Satan's  hate  and  man's  utter 
wickedness    tiiat    stand    here    revealed  ?      The   issue 


430  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GAI.ATIANS, 

shows  with  whom  victory  lay  in  the  dread  conflict 
fought  out  in  the  Redeemer's  soul  and  flesh.  **  God 
was  in  Christ" — living,  dying,  rising.  And  what 
was  He  doing  in  Christ? — ''reconciling  the  world  unto 
Himself." 

Now  we  know  what  the  Maker  of  the  worlds  is  like 
"  He  that  hath  seen  Me/'  said  Jesus  on  Passion  Eve, 
"  hath  seen  the  Father.  From  henceforth  ye  know 
Him,  and  have  seen  Him."  What  the  world  knew 
before  of  the  Divine  character  and  intentions  towards 
man  was  but  "poor,  weak  rudiments."  Now  the 
believer  has  come  to  Peniel;  like  Jacob,  he  has  "  seen 
the  face  of  God."  He  has  touched  the  centre  of  things. 
He  has  found  the  secret  of  love. 

Moreover,  the  Apostle  gloried  in  the  cross  because 
it  was  the  salvation  of  men.  His  love  for  men  made 
him  boast  of  it,  no  less  than  his  zeal  for  God.  The 
gospel  burning  in  his  heart  and  on  his  lips,  was  "  God's 
power  unto  salvation,  both  to  Jew  and  Greek."  He 
says  this  not  by  way  of  speculation  or  theological 
inference,  but  as  the  testimony  of  his  constant  expe- 
rience. It  was  bringing  men  by  thousands  from 
darkness  into  light,  raising  them  from  the  slough  of 
hideous  vices  and  guilty  despair,  taming  the  fiercest 
passions,  breaking  the  strongest  chains  of  evil,  driving 
out  of  human  hearts  the  demons  of  lust  and  hate. 
This  message,  wherever  it  went,  was  saving  men,  as 
nothing  had  done  before,  as  nothing  else  has  done 
since.    What  lover  of  his  kind  would  not  rejoice  in  this? 

We  are  members  of  a  w^eak  and  suffering  race, 
groaning  each  in  his  own  fashion  under  "  the  law  of 
sin  and  death,"  crying  out  ever  and  anon  with  Paul, 
"O  wretched  man  that  I  am  1"  If  the  misery  of  our 
bondage  was  acute    its  darkness  extreme,  how  great 


vi.  II-I4J     THE  FALSE  AND  THE  TRUE  CLOKVING,     431 

is  the  joy  with  which  we  liail  our  Redeemer  I  It  is  the 
gladness  of  an  iniinense  rehef,  the  joy  of  salvation. 
And  our  triumph  is  redoubled  when  we  perceive  that 
His  grace  brings  us  not  deliverance  for  ourselves  alone, 
but  commissions  us  to  impart  it  to  our  fellow-men, 
"Thanks  be  to  God,"  cries  the  Apostle,  "  who  always 
leadeth  us  in  triumph,  and  maketh  known  the  savour 
of  His  know'k'dge  by  us  in  every  place  "  (2  Cor.  ii.  14). 

The  essence  of  the  gospel  revealed  to  Paul,  as  we 
have  observed  more  than  once,  lay  in  its  conception 
of  the  office  of  the  cross  of  Christ.  Not  the  Incarnation 
— the  basis  of  the  manifestation  of  the  Father  in  the 
Son  ;  not  the  sinless  life  and  superhuman  teaching  of 
Jesus,  which  have  moulded  the  spiritual  ideal  of  faith 
and  supplied  its  contents ;  not  the  Resurrection  and 
Ascension  of  the  Redeemer,  crowning  the  Divine  edifice 
with  the  glory  of  life  eternal ;  but  the  sacrifice  of  the 
cross  is  the  focus  of  the  Christian  revelation.  This 
gives  to  the  gospel  its  saving  virtue.  Round  this 
centre  all  other  acts  and  olTices  of  the  Saviour  revolve, 
and  from  it  receive  their  healing  grace.  From  the 
hour  of  the  Fall  of  man  the  manifestations  of  the 
Divine  grace  to  him  ever  looked  forward  to  Calvary ; 
and  to  Calvary  the  testimony  of  that  grace  has  looked 
backward  ever  since.  *'  By  this  sign  "  the  Cliurch  has 
conquered ;  the  innumerable  benefits  with  which  her 
teaching  has  enriched  mankind  must  all  be  laid  in 
tribute  at  the  foot  of  the  cross. 

The  atonement  of  Jesus  Christ  demands  from  us  a 
faith  like  Paul's,  a  faith  of  exultation,  a  boundless  en- 
thusiasm of  gratitude  and  confidence.  If  it  is  worth 
believing  in  at  all,  it  is  worth  believing  in  heroically. 
Let  us  so  boast  of  it,  so  exhibit  in  our  lives  its  power, 
so  spend  ourselves  in  servincr  it.   that  we  may  justly 


J 


^ 


432  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

claim  from  all  men  homage  toward  the  Crucified.  Let 
us  lift  up  the  cross  of  Christ  till  its  glory  shines  world- 
wide, till,  as  He  said,  it  "draws  all  men  unto  Him." 
If  we  triumph  in  the  cross,  we  shall  triumph  by  it.  It 
will  carry  the  Church  to  victory. 

And  the  cross    of  Jesus    Christ  is  the  salvation  of 
men,  just  because  it  is  tie   revelation   of  God.     It  is 
"  life  eternal,"  said  Jesus  to  the  Father,  "  to  know  Thee^ 
The    gospel    does    not    save    by  mere   pathos,   but   by 
knowledge — by  bringing  about  a  right  understanding 
between  man  and  his  Maker,  a  reconciliation.     It  brings 
God  and  man  together  in  the  light  of  truth.     In  this 
revelation  we  see  ///;;/,  the  Judge  and  the  Father,  the 
Lord  of  the  conscience  and  the  Lover  of  His  children  ; 
and  w^e  see  ourselves — what  our  sins  mean,  what  they 
have  done.     God  is  face  to  face  with  the  world.     Holi- 
ness and  sin  meet  in  the  shock  of  Calvary,  and  flash 
into  light,  each  illuminated  by  contrast  with  the  other. 
And  the  view  of  what  God  is  in  Christ — how  He  judges, 
how  He  pities  us — once  fairly  seen,  breaks  the  heart, 
kills  the  love  of  sin.     ^'  The  glory  of  God  in  the  face 
of  Jesus  Christ,"  sitting  on  that  thorn-crow^ned  brow, 
clothing  that  bleeding  Form  rent  with  the  anguish  of 
Mercy's  conflict  with  Righteousness  on  our  behalf — it 
is  this  w^hich  "  shines  in  our  hearts  "  as  in  Paul's,  and 
cleanses  the  soul  by  its  pity  and  its  terror.     But  this 
is  no  dramatic  scene,  it  is  Divine,  eternal  fact.     "We 
have  beheld  and  do  testify  that  the  Father  sent  the  Son 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world.     We  know  and  have 
believed  the  love  that  God  hath  to  us"  (l  John  iv.  14,  16). 

Such  is  the  relation  to  God  which  the  cross  has 
established  for  the  Apostle.  In  what  position  does  it 
place  him  toward  the  ivorld  ?  To  it,  he  tells  us,  he  has 
bidden  farewell.     Paul  tijkI  the  world  are  dead  to  each 


vi.  II-I4.]     THE  FALSE  AND  THE  TRUE  GLOKYING.    433 

other.  The  cross  statTls  betwoen  them.  In  eh.  ii.  20 
he  had  said,  "/  am  crucified  with  Christ;"  in  ch.  v. 
24,  that  his  ''JJcsh  with  its  passions  and  lusts"  had 
undergone  this  fate  ;  and  now  he  writes,  "  Through 
the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  the  world  is 
crucified  to  me,  and  I  to  the  world." 

Literally,  a  world — a  whole  world  was  crucified  for 
Paul  when  his  Lord  died  upon  the  cross.  The  world 
that  slew  Him  put  an  end  to  itself,  so  far  as  he  is 
concerned.  He  can  never  believe  in  it,  never  take 
pride  in  it,  nor  do  homage  to  it  any  more.  It  is 
stripped  of  its  glory,  robbed  of  its  power  to  charm  or 
govern  him.  The  death  of  shame  that  old  "  evil  world  " 
inflicted  upon  Jesus  has,  in  Paul's  eyes,  reverted  to 
itself;  while  for  the  Saviour  it  is  changed  into  a  life 
of  heavenly  glory  and  dominion.  The  Apostle's  life 
is  withdrawn  from  it,  to  be  "  hid  with  Christ  in  God." 

This  "crucifixion"  is  therefore  mutual.  The  Apostle 
also  **  is  crucified  to  the  world."  Saul  the  Pharisee 
was  a  reputable,  religious  man  of  the  world,  recognised 
by  it,  alive  to  it,  taking  his  place  in  its  affairs.  But 
that  "  old  man "  has  been  "  crucified  with  Christ." 
The  present  Paul  is  in  the  world's  regard  another 
person  altogether — "  the  filth  of  the  world,  the  off- 
scouring  of  all  things,"  no  better  than  his  crucified 
Master  and  worthy  to  share  His  punishment.  He  is 
dead — "  crucified  "  to  it.  Faith  in  Jesus  Christ  placed 
a  gulf,  wide  as  that  which  parts  the  dead  and  living, 
between  tlie  Church  of  the  Apostles  and  men  around 
them.  The  cross  parted  two  worlds  wholly  difTerent, 
He  who  would  go  back  into  that  other  world,  the  world 
of  godless  self-pleasing  and  fleshly  idolatry,  must  step 
over  the  cross  of  Christ  to  do  it. 

"  To   me,''    testifies    Paul,    "  the   world   is  crui  ilicd." 

28 


434  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

And  the  Church  of  Christ  has  still  to  witness  this 
confession.  We  read  in  it  a  prophecy.  Evil  must  die. 
The  world  that  crucified  the  Son  of  God,  has  written 
its  own  doom.  With  its  Satanic  Prince  it  "has  been 
judged"  (John  xii.  31;  xvi.  ii).  Morally,  it  is  dead 
already.  The  sentence  has  passed  the  Judge's  lips. 
The  weakest  child  of  God  may  safely  defy  it,  and  scorn 
its  boasting.  Its  visible  force  is  still  immense ;  its 
subjects  multitudinous  ;  its  empire  to  appearance  hardly 
shaken.  It  towers  like  Goliath  confronting  ''the  armies 
of  the  living  God."  But  the  foundation  of  its  strength 
is  gone.  Decay  saps  its  frame.  Despair  creeps  over 
its  heart.  The  consciousness  of  its  impotence  and 
misery  grows  upon  it. 

Worldliness  has  lost  its  old  serenity  irrecoverably. 
The  cross  incessantly  disturbs  it,  and  haunts  its  very 
dreams.  Antichristian  thought  at  the  present  time 
is  one  wide  fever  of  discontent.  It  is  sinking  into 
the  vortex  of  pessimism.  Its  mockery  is  louder  and 
more  brilliant  than  ever ;  but  there  is  something 
strangely  convulsive  in  it  all ;  it  is  the  laughter  of 
despair,  the  dance  of  death. 

Christ  the  Son  of  God  has  come  down  from  the 
cross,  as  they  challenged  Him.  But  coming  down,  He 
has  fastened  there  in  His  place  the  world  that  taunted 
Him.  Struggle  as  it  may,  it  cannot  unloose  itself  from 
its  condemnation,  from  the  fact  that  it  has  killed  its 
Prince  of  Life.  The  cross  of  Jesus  Christ  must  save — 
or  destroy.  The  world  must  be  reconciled  to  God,  or 
it  will  perish.  On  the  foundation  laid  of  God  in  Zion 
men  will  either  build  or  break  themselves  for  ever. 
The  world  that  hated  Christ  and  the  Father,  the  world 
that  Paul  cast  from  him  as  a  dead  thing,  cannot  endure. 
It  "  passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof." 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

RITUAL  NOTHING:    CHARACTER  EVERYTHING. 

"For  neither  is  circumcision  anything,  nor  uneirciimcision,  but 
a  new  creation.  And  as  many  as  sliall  walk  by  this  rule,  peace  bt 
upon  them,  and  mercy,  and  upon  the  Israel  olGod." — Gal.  vL  15,  16. 

VERSE  14  comprehends  the  whole  theology  of  the 
Epistle,  and  ver.  15  brings  to  a  head  its  practical 
and  ethical  teaching.  This  apophthegm  is  one  of  the 
landmarks  of  religious  history.  It  ranks  in  importance 
with  Christ's  great  saying:  "God  is  a  Spirit;  and  they 
that  worship  Him,  must  worship  in  spirit  and  truth  " 
(John  iv.  21 — 24).  These  sentences  of  Jesus  and  of 
Paul  taken  together  mark  the  dividing  line  between  the 
Old  and  the  New  Economy.  They  declare  the  nature  of 
the  absolute  religion,  from  the  Divine  and  human  side 
respectively.  God's  pure  spiritual  being  is  afiirmcd 
by  Jesus  Christ  to  be  henceforth  the  norm  of  religious 
worship.  The  exclusive  sacredness  of  Jerusalem,  or 
of  Gerizim,  had  therefore  passed  away.  On  the  other 
hand,  and  regarding  religion  from  its  psychological 
side,  as  matter  of  experience  and  attainment,  it  is  set 
forth  by  our  Apostle  as  an  inward  life,  a  spiritual  con- 
dition, dependent  on  no  outward  form  or  performance 
whatsoever.  Paul's  principle  is  a  consequence  of  that 
declared  by  his  Master.  If  "  God  is  a  Spirit,"  to  b'_- 
known  and  approached  as  such,  ceremonial  at  once 
loses   its    predominance ;   it   sinks  into  the  accidental 


436  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

the  merely  provisional  and  perishing  element  of 
religion.  Faith  is  no  longer  bound  to  material  con- 
ditions ;  it  passes  inward  to  its  proper  seat  in  the 
spirit  of  man.  And  the  dictum  that  **  Circumcision  is 
nothing,  and  uncircumcision  nothing  "  (comp.  ch.  v.  6 ; 
I  Cor.  vii.  19),  becomes  a  watchword  of  Christian 
theology. 

This  Pauline  axiom  is  advanced  to  justify  the  con- 
fession of  the  Apostle  made  in  ver.  14 ;  it  supports  the 
protest  of  vv.  12 — 14  against  the  devotees  of  circum- 
cision, who  professed  faith  in  Christ  but  were  ashamed 
of  His  cross.  "That  Judaic  rite  in  which  you  glory," 
he  says,  "  is  nothing.  Ritual  qualifications  and  dis- 
qualifications are  abolished.  Life  in  the  Spirit,  the 
new  creation  that  begins  with  faith  in  Christ  crucified 
— that  is  everything."  The  boasts  of  the  Judaizers 
were  therefore  folly  :  they  rested  on  "  nothing."  The 
Apostle's  glorying  alone  was  valid  :  the  new  world  of 
"the  kingdom  of  God,"  with  its  "righteousness  and 
peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,"  was  there  to 
justify  it. 

I.  For  neither  is  circumcision  anything, — Judaism  is 
abolished  at  a  stroke !  With  it  circumcision  was 
everything,  "  The  circumcision  "  and  "  the  people  of 
God "  were  in  Israelitish  phrase  terms  synonymous. 
"Uncircumcision"  embraced  all  that  was  heathenish, 
outcast  and  unclean. 

The  Mosaic  polity  made  the  status  of  its  subjects, 
their  relation  to  the  Divine  covenant,  to  depend  on  this 
initiator}^  rite.  "Circumcised  the  eighth  da}^,"  the 
child  came  under  the  rule  and  guardianship  of  the 
sacred  Law.  In  virtue  of  this  mark  stamped  upon  his 
body,  he  was  ipso  facto  a  member  of  the  congregation 
of  the  Lord,  bound  to  all  its  duties,  so  far  as  his  age 


vi.  IS,  i6.]  RITUAL  XOTIIING.  437 


permitted,  and  partner  in  all  its  privileges.  The  con- 
stitution of  Mo.saisni  —its  ordinances  of  worship,  its 
ethical  discipline,  its  methods  of  administration,  and 
the  type  of  character  which  it  formed  in  the  Jewish 
nation — rested  on  this  fundamental  sacramont,  and  took 
their  complexion  therefrom. 

The  Judaists  necessarily  therefore  made  it  their  first 
object  to  enforce  circumcision.  If  they  secured  this, 
they  could  carry  everything  ;  and  the  complete  Judaizing 
of  Gentile  Christianity  was  only  a  question  of  time. 
This  foundation  laid,  the  entire  system  of  legal  obliga- 
tion could  be  reared  upon  it  (ch.  v.  3).  To  resist 
the  imposition  of  this  yoke  was  for  the  Pauline 
Churches  a  matter  of  life  and  death.  They  could  not 
afford  to  "yield  by  subjection — no,  not  for  an  hour." 
The  Apostle  stands  forth  as  the  champion  of  their 
freedom,  and  casts  all  Jewish  pretensions  to  the 
winds  when  he  says,  "  Neither  is  circumcision  any- 
thing." 

This  absolute  way  of  putting  the  matter  must  have 
provoked  the  orthodox  Jew  to  the  last  degree.  The 
privileges  and  ancestral  glories  of  his  birth,  the  truth 
of  God  in  Mis  covenants  and  revelations  to  the  fathers, 
were  to  his  mind  wrapped  up  in  this  ordinance,  and 
belonged  of  right  to  "  the  Circumcision:"  To  say  that 
circumcision  is  nothing  seemed  to  him  as  goud  as 
saying  that  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  were  nothing, 
that  Israel  had  no  pre-eminence  over  the  Gentiles,  no 
right  to  claim  "  the  God  of  Abraham  "  as  her  God. 
Hence  the  bitterness  with  which  the  Apostle  was  per- 
secuted by  his  fellow-countrymen,  and  the  credence 
given,  even  by  orthodox  Jewish  Christians,  to  the 
charge  that  he  "  taught  to  the  Jews  apostasy  from 
Moses"  (Acts  xxi.  21).     In  truth  Paul  did  nothing  ot 


438  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS, 

the  kind,  as  James  of  Jerusalem  very  well  knew.  But 
a  sentence  like  this,  torn  from  its  context,  and  repeated 
amongst  Jewish  communities,  naturally  gave  rise  to 
such  imputations. 

In  his  subsequent  Epistle  to  the  Romans  the  Apostle 
is  at  pains  to  correct  erroneous  inferences  drawn  from 
this  and  similar  sayings  of  his  concerning  the  Law. 
He  shows  that  circumcision,  in  its  historical  import, 
was  of  the  highest  value.  "What  is  the  advantage  of 
the  Jew?  What  the  benefit  of  circumcision  ?  Much 
every  way,"  he  acknowledges.  "  Chiefly  in  that  to 
them  were  entrusted  the  oracles  of  God  "  (Rom.  iii.  I, 
2).  And  again:  ''Who  are  Israelites;  whose  is  the 
adoption,  and  the  glory,  and  the  covenants,  and  the 
lawgiving,  and  the  service  of  God,  and  the  promises  ; 
whose  are  the  fathers, — and  of  whom  is  the  Christ  as 
concerning  the  flesh,  who  is  over  all,  God  blessed  for 
ever  "  (Rom.  ix.  4,  5).  Eloquently  has  Paul  vindicated 
himself  from  the  reproach  of  indifference  to  the  ancient 
faith.  Never  did  he  love  his  Jewish  kindred  more 
fervently,  nor  entertain  a  stronger  confidence  in  their 
Divine  calling,  than  at  the  moment  when  in  that 
Epistle  he  pronounced  the  reprobation  that  ensued  on 
their  rejecting  the  gospel  of  Christ.  He  repeats  in 
the  fullest  terms  the  claim  which  Jesus  Himself  was 
careful  to  assert,  in  declaring  the  extinction  of  Judaism 
as  a  local  and  tribal  religion,  that  "  Salvation  is  of  the 
Jews"  (John  iv.  21 — 24).  In  the  Divine  order  of 
history  it  is  still  "  to  the  Jew  first."  But  natural 
relationship  to  the  stock  of  Abraham  has  in  itself  no 
spiritual  virtue  ;  ''  circumcision  of  the  flesh  "  is  worth- 
less, except  as  the  symbol  of  a  cleansed  and  consecrated 
heart.  The  possession  of  this  outward  token  of  God's 
covenant   with  Israel,  and  the  hereditary  blessings  it 


vi.  15,  i6.]  RITUAL  XOTIUXG.  439 

conferred,  brought  with  them  a  higher  resp(»n^ibility, 
involving  heavier  punishment  in  case  of  unfaithfulness 
(Rom.  ii.  17 — iii.  8).  This  teaching  is  pertinent  to 
the  case  of  children  of  Christian  families,  to  those 
formally  attached  to  the  Church  by  their  baptism  in 
infancy  and  by  attendance  on  her  public  rites.  These 
things  certainly  have  "  much  advantage  every  way." 
And  yet  in  themselves,  without  a  corresponding  inner 
regeneration,  without  a  true  death  unto  sin  and  life 
unto  righteousness,  these  also  are  notliing.  The 
limiting  phrase  "  in  Clirist  Jesus  "  is  no  doubt  a 
copyist's  addition  to  the  text,  supplied  from  ch.  v.  6 ; 
but  the  qualification  is  in  the  Apostle's  mind,  and  is 
virtually  given  by  the  context.  No  ceremony  is  of  the 
essence  of  Christianity.  No  outward  rite  by  itself 
makes  a  Christian.  We  are  "joined  to  the  Lord"  in 
"  one  Spirit."     This  is  the  vital  tie. 

Nor  is  iuici}Xiuncision  aiiylliing.  This  is  the  counter- 
balancing assertion,  and  it  makes  still  clearer  the  bear- 
ing of  the  former  saying.  Paul  is  not  contending 
against  Judaism  in  any  anti-Judaic  spirit.  He  is  not 
for  setting  up  Gentile  in  the  place  of  Jewish  customs 
in  the  Church  ;  he  excludes  both  impartially.  Neither, 
he  declares,  have  any  place  "in  Christ  Jesus,"  and 
amongst  the  things  that  accompany  salvation.  Paul 
has  no  desire  to  humiliate  the  Jewish  section  of  the 
Church;  but  only  to  protect  the  Gentiles  from  its 
aggressions.  He  lays  his  hand  on  both  parties  and  by 
this  evenly  balanced  declaration  restrains  each  of  them 
from  encroaching  on  the  other.  "  Was  any  one  called 
circumcised"?  he  writes  to  Corinth:  "let  him  not 
renounce  his  circumcision.  Hath  any  one  bt^n  called 
in  uncircumcision  ?  Let  him  not  be  circumcised."  The 
two    states    alike    are    "  nothing "  from    the   Christian 


440  THE  EPISTLE    TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


standpoint.     The  essential  thing  is  "  keeping  the  com- 
mandments of  God"  (i  Cor.  vii.  i8,  19). 

Christian  Gentiles  retained  in  some  instances,  doubt- 
less, their  former  antipathy  to  Jewish  practices.  And 
while  many  of  the  Galatians  were  inclined  to  Legalism, 
others  cherished  an  extreme  repugnance  to  its  usages. 
The  pretensions  of  the  Legalists  were  calculated  to 
excite  in  the  minds  of  enlightened  Gentile  believers  a 
feeling  of  contempt,  which  led  them  to  retort  on  Jewish 
pride  with  language  of  ridicule.  Anti-Judaists  would 
be  found  arguing  that  circumcision  was  a  degradation, 
the  brand  of  a  servile  condition  ;  and  that  its  possessor 
must  not  presume  to  rank  with  the  free  sons  of  God. 
In  their  opinion,  uncircumcision  was  to  be  preferred 
and  had  ^*  much  advantage  every  way."  Amongst 
Paul's  immediate  followers  there  may  have  been  some 
who,  like  Marcion  in  the  second  century,  would  fain  be 
more  Pauline  than  the  Apostle  himself,  and  replied  to 
Jewish  intolerance  with  an  anti-legal  intolerance  of 
their  own.  To  this  party  it  was  needful  to  say,  "Neither 
is  uncircumcision  anything." 

The  pagan  in  his  turn  has  nothing  for  which  to 
boast  over  the  man  of  Israel.  This  is  the  caution  which 
the  Apostle  urges  on  his  Gentile  readers  so  earnestly 
in  Rom.  xi.  13 — 24.  He  reminds  them  that  they  owe 
an  immense  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  ancient  people  of 
God.  Wild  branches  grafted  into  the  stock  of  Abraham, 
they  were  "partaking  of  the  root  and  fatness"  of  the 
old  "olive-tree."  If  the  " natural  branches  "  had  been 
"  broken  off  through  unbelief,"  much  more  might  they 
It  became  them  "  not  to  be  high-minded  but  to  fear." 
So  Paul  seeks  to  protect  Israel  after  the  flesh,  in 
its  rejection  and  sorrowful  exile  from  the  fold  of  Christ, 
against  Gentile  insolence.    Alas  !  that  his  protection  has 


vi.  IS,  i6.]  RITUAL  NOTIilSC.  44I 


been  so  little  availing.     The  Christian  persecutions  of 
the  Jews  are  a  dark  blot  on  the  Church's  record. 

The  enemies  of  bigotry  and  narnnvness  too  often 
imbibe  the  same  spirit.  When  others  treat  us  with 
contempt,  we  are  apt  to  pay  them  back  in  their  own 
coin.  They  unchurch  us,  because  we  cannot  pronounce 
their  shibboleths  ;  they  refuse  to  see  in  our  communion 
the  signs  of  Christ's  indwelling.  It  requires  our  best 
charity  in  that  case  to  appreciate  their  excellencies  and 
the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  manifest  in  them.  "  I  am  of 
Cephas,"  say  they ;  and  we  answer  with  the  challenge, 
"  I  of  Paul."  Sectarianism  is  denounced  in  a  sectarian 
spirit.  The  enemies  of  form  and  ceremony  make  a 
religion  of  their  Anti-ritualism.  Church  controversies 
are  proverbially  bitter ;  the  love  which  "  hopeth  and 
believeth  all  things,"  under  their  influence  suffers  a 
sad  eclipse.  On  both  sides  let  us  be  on  our  guard. 
The  spirit  of  partisanship  is  not  confined  to  the 
assertors  of  Church  prerogative.  An  obstinate  and 
uncharitable  pride  has  been  known  to  spring  up  in  the 
breasts  of  the  defenders  of  liberty,  in  those  who  deem 
themselves  the  exponents  of  pure  spiritual  religion. 
"  Thus  I  trample  on  the  pride  of  Plato,"  said  the  Cynic, 
as  he  trod  on  the  philosopher's  sumptuous  carpets;  and 
Plato  justly  retorted,  "  You  do  it  with  greater  pride." 

The  Apostle  w^ould  fain  lift  his  readers  above  the 
level  of  this  legalist  contention.  He  bids  them  dismiss 
their  profitless  debates  respecting  the  import  of  circum- 
cision, the  observance  of  Jewish  feasts  and  sabbaths. 
These  debates  were  a  mischief  in  themselves,  destroying 
the  Church's  peace  and  distracting  men's  minds  from 
the  spiritual  aims  of  the  Gospel  ;  they  were  fatal  to  the 
dignity  and  elevation  of  the  Christian  life.  When  men 
allow  themselves  to  be  absorbed  by  questions  of  this 


442  riJE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

kind,  and  become  Circumcisionist  or  Uncircumcisionist 
partisans,  eager  Ritualists  or  Anti-ritualists,  they  lose 
the  sense  of  proportion  in  matters  of  faith  and  the  poise 
of  a  conscientious  and  charitable  judgement.  These 
controversies  pre-eminently  *' minister  questions"  to  no 
profit  but  to  the  subverting  of  the  hearers,  instead  of 
furthering  *'  the  dispensation  of  God,  which  is  in  faith  " 
(l  Tim.  i.  4).  They  disturb  the  City  of  God  with  intes- 
tine strife,  while  the  enemy  thunders  at  the  gates. 
Could  we  only  let  such  disputes  alone,  and  leave  them 
to  perish  by  inanition !  So  Paul  would  have  the 
Galatians  do ;  he  tells  them  that  the  great  Mosaic  rite 
is  no  longer  worth  defending  or  attacking.  The  best 
thing  is  to  forget  it. 

II.  What  then  has  the  Apostle  to  put  in  the  place  of 
ritual,  as  the  matter  of  cardinal  importance  and  chief 
study  in  the  Church  of  Christ  ?  He  presents  to  view 
a  new  creation. 

It  is  something  new  that  he  desiderates.  Mosaism 
was  effete.  The  questions  arising  out  of  it  were  dying, 
or  dead.  The  old  method  of  revelation  which  dealt 
with  Jew  and  Gentile  as  different  religious  species,  and 
conserved  Divine  truth  by  a  process  of  exclusion  and 
prohibition,  had  served  its  purpose.  "  The  middle  wall 
of  partition  was  broken  down."  The  age  of  faith 
and  freedom  had  come,  the  dispensation  of  grace  and  of 
the  Spirit.  The  Legalists  minimised,  they  practically 
ignored  the  significance  of  Calvary.  Race-distinctions 
and  caste-privileges  were  out  of  keeping  with  such  a 
religion  as  Christianity.  The  new  creed  set  up  a  new 
order  of  life,  which  left  behind  it  the  discussions  of 
rabbinism  and  the  formularies  of  the  legal  schools  as 
survivals  of  bygone  centuries. 

The  novelty  of  the  religion  of  the  gospel  was   most 


vi.  IS,  i6.)  CHARACTER  EVERYTII I Xa.  4jj 

conspiruous  in  the  fieiv  type  of  character  that  it  created. 
iThe  faith  of  the  cross  claims  to  liave  produced  not  a 
new  style  of  ritual,  a  new  system  of  government,  but 
new  men.  By  this  product  it  must  be  judged.  The 
Christian  is  the  "new  creature"  which  it  begets. 

Whatever  Christianity  has  accomplished  in  the  outer 
world — the  various  forms  of  worship  and  social  life 
in  which  it  is  embodied,  the  changed  order  of  thought 
and  of  civilisation  which  it  is  building  up — is  the 
result  of  its  influence  over  the  hearts  of  individual  men. 
Christ,  above  all  other  teachers,  addressed  Himself 
directly  to  the  heart,  whence  proceed  the  issues  of  life. 
There  His  gospel  establishes  its  seat.  The  Christian  is 
the  man  with  a  "  new  heart."  The  prophets  of  the  Old 
Testament  looked  forward  to  this  as  the  essential  bless- 
ing of  religion,  promised  for  the  Messianic  times  (Heb. 
viii.  8 — 13).  Through  them  the  Holy  Spirit  uttered 
His  protest  against  the  mechanical  legalism  to  which 
the  religion  of  the  temple  and  the  priesthood  was 
already  tending.  But  this  witness  had  fallen  on  deaf 
ears  ;  and  when  Christ  proclaimed,  "  It  is  the  Spirit 
that  quickeneth,  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing,"  when  He 
said,  "  The  things  that  defile  a  man  come  out  of  his 
heart,"  He  preached  revolutionary  doctrine.  It  is  the 
same  principle  that  the  Apostle  vindicates.  The 
religion  of  Christ  has  to  do  in  the  first  place  with  the 
individual  man,  and  in  man  with  his  heart. 

What  then,  we  further  ask,  is  the  character  of  this 
hidden  man  of  the  heart,  "created  anew  in  Christ 
Jesus"?  Our  Epistle  has  given  us  the  answer.  In 
him  "  faith  working  by  love  "  takes  the  place  of  circum- 
cision and  uncircumcision — that  is,  of  Jewish  and 
Gentile  ceremonies  and  moralities,  powerless  alike  to 
save  (ch.  v.  6).     Love  comes  forward  to  guarantee  the 


444  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

"  fulfilling  of  the  law,"  whose  fulfilment  legal  sanctions 
failed  to  secure  (ch.  v.  14).  And  the  Spirit  of  Christ* 
assumes  His  sovereignty  in  this  work  of  new  creation, 
calling  into  being  His  array  of  inward  graces  to 
supersede  the  works  of  the  condemned  flesh  that  no 
longer  rules  in  the  nature  of  God's  redeemed  sons 
(ch.  V.  16 — 24). 

The  Legalists,  notwithstanding  their  idolatry  of  the 
law,  did  not  keep  it.  So  the  Apostle  has  said,  without 
fear  of  contradiction  (ver.  1 3).  But  the  men  of  the  Spirit, 
actuated  by  a  power  above  law",  in  point  of  fact  do  keep 
it,  and  "  law's  righteousness  is  fulfilled  "  in  them  (Rom. 
viii.  3,  4).  This  was  a  new  thing  in  the  earth.  Never 
had  the  law  of  God  been  so  fulfilled,  in  its  essentials,  as 
it  was  by  the  Church  of  the  Crucified.  Here  were  men 
who  truly  *'  loved  God  with  all  their  soul  and  strength, 
and  their  neighbour  as  themselves."  From  Love  the 
highest  down  to  Temperance  the  humblest,  all  ''the 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  "  in  its  clustered  perfection  flourished 
in  their  lives.  Jewish  discipline  and  Pagan  culture 
were  both  put  to  shame  by  this  "  new  creation "  of 
moral  virtue.  These  graces  were  produced  not  in 
select  instances  of  individuals  favoured  by  nature,  in 
souls  disposed  to  goodness,  or  after  generations  of 
Christian  discipline ;  but  in  multitudes  of  men  of  every 
grade  of  life — Jews  and  Greeks,  slaves  and  freemen, 
wise  and  unwise — in  those  who  had  been  steeped  in 
infamous  vices,  but  were  now  "  washed,  sanctified, 
justified  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  by  the 
Spirit  of  our  God." 

Such  regenerated  men  were  the  credentials  of  Paul's 
gospel.  As  he  looked  on  his  Corinthian  converts, 
drawn  out  of  the  very  sink  of  heathen  corruption,  he 
could  say,  "  The  seal  of  my  apostleship  are  ye  in  the 


vi.  15,  i6.]  CHARACTER  EVERYTHING.  445 


Lord."  The  like  answer  Christianity  has  still  to  give 
to  its  questioners.  If  it  ever  ceases  to  render  this 
answer,  its  day  is  over;  and  all  the  strength  of  its 
historical  and  philosophical  evidences  will  not  avail  it. 
The  Gospel  is  '*  God's  power  unto  salvation  " — or  it 
is  nothing  ! 

Such  is  Paul's  caiioUy  as  he  calls  it  in  ver.  16 — the 
rule  which  applies  to  the  faith  and  practice  of  every 
Christian  man,  to  the  pretensions  of  all  theological  and 
ecclesiastical  systems.  The  true  Christianity,  the  true 
churchmanship,  is  that  which  turns  bad  men  into  good, 
which  transforms  the  slaves  of  sin  into  sons  of  God. 
A  true  faith  is  a  saving  faith.  The  "  new  creation"  is 
the  sign  of  the  Creator's  presence.  It  is  God  "  who 
quickcneth  the  dead"  (Rom.  iv.   17). 

When  the  Apostle  exalts  character  at  the  expense 
of  ceremonial,  he  does  this  in  a  spirit  the  very  opposite 
of  religious  indifTerence.  His  maxim  is  far  removed 
from  that  expressed  in  the  famous  couplet  of  Pope : 

"  For  modes  of  laith  let  graceless  zealots  fight ; 
His  can't  be  wrong  whose  life  is  in  tlie  right." 

The  gospel  of  Christ  is  above  all  things  a  mode  nj 
faith.  The  "new  creature"  is  a  son  of  God,  seeking 
to  be  like  God.  His  conception  of  the  Divine  cha- 
racter and  of  his  own  relationship  thereto  governs  his 
whole  Ufe.  His  "life  is  in  the  right,"  because  his 
heart  is  right  with  God.  All  attempts  to  divorce 
morality  from  religi  n,  to  build  up  society  on  a  secular 
and  non-religious  basis,  are  indeed  foredoomed  to 
failure.  The  experience  of  mankind  is  against  them. 
As  a  nation's  religion  has  been,  so  its  morals.  The 
ethical  standard  in  its  rise  or  fall,  if  at  some  interval 
of  time,  yet  invariably,  follows  the  advance  or  decline 


446  THE  EPISTLE   TO    THE   GALATIANS. 

of  spiritual  faith.  For  practical  purposes,  and  for 
society  at  large,  religion  supplies  the  mainspring  of 
ethics.  Creed  is  in  the  long  run  the  determinant  of 
character.  The  question  with  the  Apostle  is  not  in  the 
least  whether  religion  is  vital  to  morals  ;  but  whether 
this  or  that  formality  is  vital  to  religion. 

One  cannot  help  wondering  how  Paul  would  have 
applied  his  canon  to  the  Church  questions  of  our  own 
day.  Would  he  perchance  have  said,  "  Episcopacy  is 
nothing,  and  Presbyterianism  is  nothing; — but  keeping 
the  commandments  of  God"?  Or  might  he  have 
interposed  in  another  direction,  to  testify  that  "  Church 
Establishments  are  nothing,  and  Disestablishment  is 
nothing  ;  charity  is  the  one  thing  needful  ? "  Nay, 
can  we  even  be  bold  enough  to  imagine  the  Apostle 
declaring,  "  Neither  Baptism  availeth  anything,  nor 
the  Lord's  Supper  availeth  anything, — apart  from  the 
faith  that  works  by  love "  ?  His  rule  at  any  rate 
conveys  an  admonition  to  us  when  we  magnify  ques- 
tions of  Church  ordinance  and  push  them  to  the  front, 
at  the  cost  of  the  weightier  matters  of  our  common 
faith.  Are  there  not  multitudes  of  Romanists  on  the 
one  hand  who  have,  as  we  believe,  perverted  sacra- 
ments, and  Quakers  on  the  other  hand  who  have  no 
sacranients,  but  who  have,  nothwithstanding,  a  penitent, 
humble,  loving  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  ?  And  their  faith 
saves  them  :  who  will  doubt  it  ?  Although  faith  must 
ordinarily  suffer,  and  does  in  our  judgement  manifestly 
suffer,  when  deprived  of  these  appointed  and  most 
precious  means  of  its  expression  and  nourishment. 
But  what  authority  have  we  to  forbid  to  such  believers 
a  place  in  the  Body  of  Christ,  in  the  brotheihood  of 
redeemed  souls,  and  to  refuse  them  the   right  hand  of 


vi.  IS,  i6.]  CHARACTER  EVERYTHING.  447 

fellowship,  "who  have  received  the  Tloly  Ghost  as 
well  as  we"  ?  "  It  is  the  Spirit  that  bearcth  witness:" 
w'ho  is  he  that  gainsayeth  ?  Grace  is  more  than  the 
means  of  grace. 

"  And  as  many  as  shall  walk  by  this  rule,  peace  be 
o\\  them  and  mercy,  and  upon  the  Israel  of  God.** 
Here  is  an  Apostolic  benediction  for  every  loyal 
Church.  The  "walk"  that  the  Apostle  approves  is  the 
measured,  even  pace,  the  steady  march  *  of  the  redeemed 
host  of  Israel.  On  all  who  are  thus  minded,  who  are 
prepared  to  make  spiritual  perfection  the  goal  of  their 
endeavours  for  themselves  and  for  the  Church,  Paul 
invokes  God's  peace  and  mercy. 

Peace  is  followed  by  the  mercy  which  guards  and 
restores  it.  Mercy  heals  backslidings  and  multijilies 
pardons.  She  loves  to  bind  up  a  broken  heart,  or  a 
rent  and  distracted  Church.  Like  the  pillar  of  fire  and 
cloud  in  the  wilderness,  this  twofold  blessing  rests  da}- 
and  night  upon  the  tents  of  Israel.  Through  all  their 
pilgrimage  it  attends  the  children  of  Abraham,  who 
follow  in  the  steps  of  their  father's  faith. 

With  this  tender  supplication  Paul  brings  his  warn- 
ings and  dissuasives  to  an  end.  For  the  betrayers 
of  the  cross  he  has  stern  indignation  and  alarms  of 
judgement.  Towards  his  children  in  the  faith  nothing 
but  peace  and  mercy  remains  in  his  heart.  As  an 
evening  calm  shuts  in  a  tempestuous  day,  so  this 
blessing  concludes  the  Epistle  so  full  of  strife  and 
agitation.  We  catch  in  it  once  more  the  chime  of 
the  old  benediction,  which  through  all  storm  and  peri! 
ever  rings  in  ears  attuned  to  its  note:  Peace  shall  be 
upon  Israel  (Ps.  cx.w.   5). 

*  ^TOt.x')(Jov(jt.y :  comp.  tii.  v.  2^. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

THE   BRAND    OF  JESUS, 

"  From  henceforth  let  no  man  trouble  me  :  for  I  bear  branded  on 
my  body  the  marks  of  Jesus.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be 
with  your  spirit,  brethren.     Amen." — Gal.  vi.  17,  18. 

THE  Apostle's  pen  lingers  over  the  last  words 
of  this  Epistle.  His  historical  self-defence,  his 
theological  argument,  his  practical  admonitions,  with 
the  blended  strain  of  expostulation  and  entreaty  that 
runs  through  the  whole — now  rising  into  an  awful 
severity,  now  sinking  into  mother-like  tenderness — 
have  reached  their  conclusion.  The  stream  of  deep 
and  fervent  thought  pouring  itself  out  in  these  pages 
has  spent  its  force.  This  prince  of  the  Apostles  in 
word  and  doctrine  has  left  the  Church  no  more  powerful 
or  characteristic  utterance  of  his  mind.  And  Paul  has 
marked  the  special  urgency  of  his  purpose  by  his  closing 
message  contained  in  the  last  six  verses,  an  Epistle 
within  the  Epistle,  penned  in  large,  bold  strokes  from 
his  own  hand,  in  which  his  very  soul  transcribes  itself 
before  our  eyes. 

It  only  remains  for  him  to  append  his  signature. 
We  should  expect  him  to  do  this  in  some  striking  and 
special  way.  His  first  sentence  (ch.  i.  I  — 10)  revealed 
the  profound  excitement  of  spirit  under  which  he  is 
labouring ;  not  otherwise  does  he  conclude.     Ver.   17 


vi.  17,  i8.]  THE  BRAND   OF  JESUS. 


449 


sharply  contrasts  with  the  words  of  peace  that  hushed 
our  thoughts  at  the  close  of  the  last  paragraph. 
Perhaps  the  peace  he  wishes  these  troubled  Churches 
reminds  him  of  his  own  troubles.  Or  is  it  that  in 
breathing  his  devout  wishes  for  "  the  Israel  of  God," 
he  cannot  but  think  of  those  who  were  "of  Israel,"  but 
no  sons  of  peace,  in  whose  hearts  was  hatred  and 
mischief  toward  himself?  Some  such  thought  stirs 
anew  the  grief  with  which  he  has  been  shaken  ;  and  a 
pathetic  cry  breaks  from  him  like  the  sough  of  the 
departing  tempest. 

Yet  the  words  have  the  sound  of  triumph  more  than 
of  sorrow.  Paul  stands  a  conscious  victor,  though 
wounded  and  with  scars  upon  him  that  he  will  carry 
to  his  grave.  Whether  this  letter  will  serve  its  imme- 
diate purpose,  whether  the  defection  in  Galatia  will  be 
stayed  by  it,  or  not,  the  cause  of  the  cross  is  sure  of  its 
triumph;  his  contention  against  its  enemies  has  not 
been  in  vain.  The  force  of  inspiration  that  uplifted 
him  in  writing  the  Epistle,  the  sense  of  insight  and 
authority  that  pervades  it,  are  themselves  an  earnest  of 
victory.  The  vindication  of  his  authority  in  Corinth, 
which,  as  we  read  the  order  of  events,  had  very  recently 
occurred,  gave  token  that  his  hold  on  the  obedience  of 
the  Gentile  Churches  was  not  likely  to  be  destroyed, 
and  that  in  the  conflict  with  legalism  the  gospel  of 
liberty  was  certain  to  prevail.  His  courage  rises  with 
the  danger.  He  writes  as  though  he  could  already 
say,  '•  I  have  fought  the  good  fight.  Thanks  be  to 
God,  which  always  leadeth  us  in  triumph  "  (2  Tim.  iv. 
7 ;  2  Cor.  ii.  14). 

The  warning  of  ver.  17  has  the  ring  of  Apostolic 
dignity.  "  From  henceforth  let  no  man  give  me  trouble  !  " 
Paul  speaks  of  himself  as  a  sacred  person.    God's  mark 

29 


450  THE  EPISTLE    'TO   THE   CALATIAXS. 

is  upon  him.     Let  men  beware  how  they  meddle  with 
him.     "  He  that  toucheth  you/'  the  Lord  said  to  His 
people  after  the  sorrows  of  the  Exile,  "  toucheth  the 
apple  of  Mine  eye  "  (Zech.  ii.  8).     The  Apostle  seems 
to  have  had  a  similar  feeling  respecting  himself.     He 
announces    that    whosoever    from    this     time    lays    an 
injurious  hand  upon  him  does  so  at  his  peril.     Hence- 
forth— for  the  struggle  with    Legalism  was  the   crisis 
of   Paul's    ministry.       It  called    forth    all   his   powers, 
natural  and  supernatural,  into  exercise.     It  led  him  to 
his  largest  thoughts  respecting  God  and  man,  sin  and 
salvation  ;  and  brought  him  his  heaviest  sorrows.     The 
conclusion  of  this  letter  signalises   the  culmination  of 
the  Judaistic  controversy,  and  the  full  establishment  of 
Paul's  influence  and  doctrinal  authority.     The  attempt 
of  Judaism  to  strangle  the  infant  Church  is  foiled.     In 
return  it  has  received  at  Paul's  hands  its  death-blow. 
The  position  won  in   this  Epistle  will  never  be  lost; 
the  doctrine  of   the   cross,  as  the  Apostle  taught  it, 
cannot  be  overthrown.     Looking  back  from  this  point 
to  ^*  prove  his  own  work,"  he  can  in  all  humihty  claim 
this  '^glorying  in  regard  to  himself"  (ver.  4).    He  stands 
attested  in  the  light  of  God's  approval  as  a  good  soldier 
of  Christ  Jesus.     He  has  done  the  cause  of  truth  an 
imperishable  service.     He   takes   his   place   henceforth 
in    the    front    rank    amongst    the    spiritual    leaders   of 
mankind.       Who    now    will    bring    reproach    against 
him,  or   do    dishonour   to  the  cross  which   he  bears  ? 
,  Against    that    man    God's    displeasure    will    go    forth. 
Some    such    thoughts    were    surely    present     to    the 
Apostle's    mind    in   writing    these   final   words.     They 
cannot  but  occur  to  us  in  reading  them.     Well  done, 
we  say,  thou  faithful  servant  of  the  Lord  !     Ill  must 
it  be  for  him  who  henceforth  shall  trouble  thee. 


vf.  17,  jS.]  the  brand   of  JESUS.  451 

"  Troubles  "  indeed,  and  to  spare,  Paul  had  encoun- 
tered. He  has  just  passed  through  the  darkest 
experience  of  his  life.  The  language  of  the  Second 
Epistle  to  Corinth  is  a  striking  commentary  upon  this 
verse.  "  We  are  pressed  on  every  side,"  he  writes, 
"  perplexed,  pursued,  smitten  down "  (ch.  iv,  8,  9). 
His  troubles  came  not  only  from  his  exhausting  labours 
and  hazardous  journeys;  he  was  everywhere  pursued 
by  the  fierce  and  deadly  hatred  of  his  ftllow-country- 
men.  Even  within  the  Church  there  were  men  who 
made  it  their  business  to  harass  him  and  destroy  his 
work.  No  place  was  safe  for  him — not  even  the  bosom 
of  the  Church.  On  land  or  water,  in  the  throngs  of 
the  city  or  the  solitudes  of  the  desert,  his  life  was  in 
hourly  jeopardy  (i  Cor.  xv.  30;  2  Cor.  xi.  26), 

Beside  all  this,  "  the  care  of  the  Churches  "  weighed 
on  his  mind  heavily.  There  was  "  no  rest "  either  for 
his  flesh  or  spirit  (2  Cor.  ii.  13  ;  vii.  5).  Recently 
Corinth,  then  Galatia  was  in  a  ferment  of  agitation. 
His  doctrine  was  attacked,  his  authority  undermined 
by  the  Judaic  emissaries,  now  in  this  quarter,  now  in 
that.  The  tumult  at  Ephesus,  so  graphically  described 
by  Luke,  happening  at  the  same  time  as  the  broils  in 
the  Corinthian  Church  and  working  on  a  frame  already 
overstrung,  had  thrown  him  into  a  prostration  of  body 
and  mind  so  great  that  he  says,  "  We  despaired  even 
of  life.  We  had  the  answer  of  death  in  ourselves" 
(2  Cor.  i.  8,  9).  The  expectation  that  he  would  die 
before  the  Lord's  return  had  now,  for  the  first  time  it 
appears,  definitely  forced  itself  on  the  Apostle,  and  cast 
over  him  a  new  shadow,  causing  deep  ponderings  and 
searchings  of  heart  (2  Cor.  v.  I  —  lo).  The  culmination 
of  the  legalistic  conflict  was  attended  with  an  inner  crisis 
that  left  its  ineffaceable  impression  on  the  Apostle's  soul. 


452  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

But  he  has  risen  from  his  sick  bed.  He  has  been 
''comforted  by  the  coming  of  Titus"  with  better  news 
from  Corinth  (2  Cor.  vii.  6 — 16).  He  has  written 
these  two  letters — the  Second  to  the  Corinthians,  and 
this  to  the  Galatians.  And  he  feels  that  the  worst  is 
past.  "  He  who  delivered  him  out  of  so  great  a  death, 
will  yet  deliver"  (2  Cor.  i.  10).  So  confident  is  he  in 
the  authority  which  Christ  gave  and  enabled  him  to 
exercise  in  utter  weakness,  so  signally  is  he  now 
stamped  as  God's  Apostle  by  his  sufferings  and  achieve- 
ments, that  he  can  dare  any  one  from  this  time  forth  to 
oppose  him.  The  anathema  of  this  Epistle  might  well 
make  his  opponents  tremble.  Its  remorseless  logic  left 
their  sophistries  no  place  of  refuge.  Its  passionate 
entreaties  broke  down  suspicion  and  sullenness.  Let 
the  Circumcisionists  beware  how  they  slander  him. 
Let  fickle  Galatians  cease  to  trouble  him  with  their 
quarrels  and  caprices.  So  well  assured  is  he  for  his 
part  of  the  rectitude  of  his  course  and  of  the  Divine 
approval  and  protection,  that  he  feels  bound  to  warn 
them  that  it  will  be  the  worse  for  those  who  at  such  a 
time  lay  upon  him  fresh  and  needless  burdens. 

One  catches  in  this  sentence  too  an  undertone  of 
entreaty^  a  confession  of  weariness.  Paul  is  tired  of 
strife.  "  Woe  is  me,"  he  might  say,  "  that  I  sojourn  in 
Meshech,  that  I  dwell  among  the  tents  of  Kedar  I  My 
soul  hath  long  had  her  dwelling  with  him  that  hateth 
peace."  "  Enmities,  ragings,  factions,  divisions" — w'ith 
what  a  painful  emphasis  he  dwells  in  the  last  chapter  on 
these  many  forms  of  discord.  He  has  known  them  all. 
For  months  he  has  been  battling  with  the  hydra-headed 
brood.  He  longs  for  an  interval  of  rest.  He  seems  to 
say,  *'  I  pray  you,  let  me  be  at  peace.  Do  not  vex  me 
any  more  with  your  quarrels.     I  have  suffered  enough." 


vi.  17,  i8.]  THE  BRAND  01- JESUS.  453 


The  present  tense  of  the  Greek  imperative  verb 
(Trapex^Tco)  brings  it  to  bear  on  the  course  of  things 
then  going  on  :  as  much  as  to  say,  "  Let  these  weapons 
be  dropped,  these  wars  and  figlitings  cease."  For  his 
own  sake  the  Apostle  begs  the  Galatians  to  desist  from 
the  folhes  that  caused  him  so  much  trouble,  and  to 
suffer  him  to  share  with  them  God's  benediction  of 
peace. 

But  what  an  argument  is  this  with  which  Paul  en- 
forces his  plea, — "for  I  bear  the  brand  of  Jesus  in 
my  body  !  ' 

"  The  stigmata  of  Jesus  " — what  does  he  mean  ?  It 
is  "in  my  body" — some  marks  branded  or  punctured 
on  the  Apostle's  person,  distinguishing  him  from  other 
men,  conspicuous  and  humiliating,  indicted  on  him  as 
Christ's  servant,  and  which  so  much  resembled  the 
inflictions  laid  on  the  Redeemer's  body  that  they  are 
called  "  the  marks  of  Jesus."  No  one  can  say  precisely 
what  these  brands  consisted  in.  But  we  know  enough 
of  the  previous  sufferings  of  the  Apostle  to  be  satisfied 
that  he  carried  on  his  person  many  painful  marks  of 
violence  and  injury.  His  perils  endured  by  land  and 
sea,  his  imprisonments,  his  "  labour  and  travail,  hunger 
and  thirst,  cold  and  nakedness,"  his  three  shipwrecks, 
the  "  night  and  day  spent  in  the  deep,"  were  sufficient 
to  break  down  the  strength  of  the  stoutest  frame  ;  they 
had  given  him  the  look  of  a  worn  and  haggard  man. 
Add  to  these  the  stoning  at  Lystra,  when  he  was 
dragged  out  for  dead.  "  Thrice "  also  had  he  been 
beaten  with  the  Roman  rods;  ''five  times"  with  the 
thirty-nine   stripes  of  the  Jewish   scourge   (2  Cor.  xi. 

23—27). 

Is  it  to  these  last  afflictions,  cruel  and  shameful  as 
they  were  in   the   extreme,  that  the  Ap«>stle  specially 


454  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


refers  as  constituting  "  the  brand  of  Jesus  "  ?  For  Jesus 
was  scourged.  The  allusion  of  I  Pet.  ii.  24 — "  by 
whose  stripes  (literally,  bruise  or  weal)  ye  were  healed  " 
— shows  how  vividly  this  circumstance  was  remembered, 
and  how  strongly  it  affected  Christian  minds.  With 
this  indignity  upon  Him — His  body  lashed  with  the 
torturing  whip,  scored  with  livid  bruises — our  Blessed 
Lord  was  exposed  on  the  cross.  So  He  was  branded 
as  a  malefactor,  even  before  His  crucifixion.  And  the 
same  brand  Paul  had  received,  not  once  but  many 
times,  for  his  Master's  sake.  As  the  strokes  of  the 
scourge  fell  on  the  Apostle's  shuddering  flesh,  he  had 
been  consoled  by  thinking  how  near  he  was  brought  to 
his  Saviour's  passion  :  "  The  servant,"  He  had  said, 
*'  shall  be  as  his  Lord."  Possibly  some  recent  inflic- 
tion of  the  kind,  more  savage  than  the  rest,  had  helped 
to  bring  on  the  malady  which  proved  so  nearly  fatal  to 
him.  In  some  way  he  had  been  marked  with  fresh 
and  manifest  tokens  of  bodily  suffering  in  the  cause 
of  Christ.  About  this  time  he  writes  of  himself  as 
"  always  bearing  about  in  his  body  the  dying  of  the 
Lord  Jesus"  (2  Cor.  iv.  10);  for  the  corpse-like  state 
of  the  Apostle,  with  the  signs  of  maltreatment  visible  in 
his  frame,  pathetically  imaged  the  suffering  Redeemer 
whom  he  preached.  Could  the  Galatians  have  seen 
him  as  he  wrote,  in  physical  distress,  labouring  under 
the  burden  of  renewed  and  aggravated  troubles,  their 
hearts  must  have  been  touched  with  pity.  It  would 
have  grieved  them  to  think  that  they  had  increased  his 
afflictions,  and  were  "  persecuting  him  whom  the  Lord 
had  smitten." 

His  scars  were  badges  of  dishonour  to  worldly  eyes. 
But  to  Paul  himself  these  tokens  were  very  precious. 
"Now  I  rejoice  in  my  sufferings  for  you/'  he  writes 


vi.  17,  !«.]  THE   BRAND   OF  JESUS.  455 


from  his  Roman  prison  at  a  later  time:  "and  am  filling 
up  what  is  lacking  of  the  afllictions  of  Christ  in  my 
flesh  "  (Col.  i.  24).  The  Lord  had  not  suffered  every- 
thing Himself.  lie  honoured  His  servants  by  leaving 
behind  a  measure  of  His  afflictions  for  each  to  endure 
in  the  Church's  behalf.  The  Apostle  was  companion 
of  his  Master's  disgrace.  In  him  the  words  of  Jesus 
were  signally  fulfilled  :  "  They  have  hated  Me  ;  they 
will  also  hate  you."  He  was  following,  closely  as  he 
might,  in  the  way  that  led  to  Calvary.  All  men  may 
know  that  Paul  is  Christ's  servant  ;  for  he  wears  His 
livery,  the  world's  contempt.  Of  Jesus  they  said, 
"Away  with  Him,  crucify  Him  ;"  and  of  Paul,  '*  Away 
with  such  a  fellow  from  the  earth :  for  it  is  not  fit  that 
he  should  live "  (Acts  xxii.  22).  "  Enough  for  the 
disciple  to  be  as  his  Master;"  what  could  he  wish 
more  ? 

His  condition  inspired  reverence  in  all  who  loved  and 
honoured  Jesus  Christ.  Paul's  Christian  brethren  were 
moved  by  feelings  of  the  tenderest  respect  by  the  sight 
of  his  wasted  and  crippled  form.  **His  bodily  presence 
is  weak  (2  Cor.  x.  10)  :  he  looks  like  a  corpse  I"  said 
his  despisers.  But  under  that  physical  feebleness  there 
lay  an  immense  fund  of  moral  vigour.  How  should  he 
not  be  weak,  after  so  many  years  of  wearying  toil  and 
relentless  persecution  and  torturing  pain  ?  Out  of  this 
very  weakness  came  a  new  and  unmatched  strength;  he 
"  glories  in  his  infirmities,"  for  there  rests  upon  him  the 
strength  of  Christ  (2  Cor.  xii.  9). 

Under  the  expression  ^*  stigmata  of  Jesus"  there  is 
couched  a  reference  to  the  practice  of  marking  criminals 
and  runaway  slaves  with  a  brand  burnt  into  the  flesh, 
which  is  perpetuated  in  our  English  use  of  the  Greek 
words  stigma  and  stigmatize.     A  man  so  marked  was 


456  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 

called  stigniatias,  i.e.^  a  branded  scoundrel ;  and  such 
the  Apostle  felt  himself  to  be  in  the  eyes  of  men  of  the 
world.  Captain  Lysias  of  Jerusalem  took  him  for  an 
Egyptian  leader  of  banditti.  Honourable  men,  when 
they  knew  him  better,  learned  to  respect  him ;  but 
such  was  the  reputation  that  his  battered  appearance, 
and  the  report  of  his  enemies,  at  first  sight  gained 
for  him. 

The  term  stigmata  had  also  another  and  different 
signification.  It  applied  to  a  well-known  custom  of 
religious  devotees  to  puncture,  or  tattoo,  upon  them- 
selves the  name  of  their  God,  or  other  sign  expressive 
of  their  devotion  (Isa.  xliv.  5  ;  Rev.  iii.  12).  This 
signification  may  be  very  naturally  combined  with 
the  former  in  the  employment  of  the  figure.  Paul's 
stigmata y  resembling  those  of  Jesus  and  being  of  the 
same  order,  were  signs  at  once  of  reproach  and  of  con- 
secration. The  prints  of  the  world's  insolence  were 
witnesses  of  his  devotion  to  Christ.  He  loves  to  call 
himself  "  the  slave  of  Christ  Jesus."  The  scourge  has 
written  on  his  back  his  Master's  name.  Those  dumb 
wounds  proclaim  him  the  bondman  of  the  Crucified. 
At  the  lowest  point  of  personal  and  official  humiliation, 
when  affronts  were  heaped  upon  him,  he  felt  that  he 
was  raised  in  the  might  of  the  Spirit  to  the  loftiest 
dignity,  even  as  *'  Christ  was  crucified  through  weak- 
ness, yet  liveth  through  the  power  of  God"  (2 
Cor.  xiii.  4.) 

The  words  /  bear — not  united,  as  in  our  own  idiom, 
but  standing  the  pronoun  at  the  head  and  the  verb  at 
the  foot  of  the  sentence — have  each  of  them  a  special 
emphasis.  / — in  contrast  with  his  opponents,  man- 
pleasers,  shunning  Christ's  reproach  ;  and  bear  he  says 
exultantly —'*  this   is  ni}    burden,  these  are  the  marks 


vi.  17,  1 8.1  THE   ]iKAND   Ob  JESUS.  457 


I  carry,"  like  the  stantlard-hcarer  of  an  army  who 
proudly  wears  his  scars  (Chrysostom).  In  the  pro- 
found and  sacred  joy  which  the  Apostle's  tribulations 
brought  him,  we  cannot  but  feel  even  at  this  distance 
that  we  possess  a  share.  They  belong  to  that  richest 
treasure  of  the  past,  the  sum  of 

"Sorrow  which  is  not  sorrow,  but  delight 
To  hear  of,  for  the  glory  that  redounds 
Therefrom  to  human  kind  and  what  we  arc" 

The  stigmatization  of  Paul,  his  puncturing  with  the 
wounds  of  Jesus,  has  been  revived  in  later  times  in  a 
manner  far  remote  from  anything  that  he  imagined  or 
would  have  desired.  Francis  of  Assist  in  the  year 
1224  A.D.  received  in  a  trance  the  wound-prints  of  the 
Saviour  on  his  body  ;  and  from  that  time  to  his  death, 
it  is  reported,  the  saint  had  the  physical  appearance 
of  one  who  had  suffered  crucifixion.  Other  instances, 
to  the  number  of  eighty,  have  been  recorded  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  of  the  reproduction,  in  more 
or  less  complete  form,  of  the  five  wounds  of  Jesus  and 
the  agonies  of  the  cross  ;  chiefly  in  the  case  of  nuns. 
The  last  was  that  of  Louise  Lateau,  who  died  in 
Belgium  in  the  year  1883.  That  such  phenomena 
have  occurred,  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  to  doubt. 
It  is  difficult  to  assign  any  limits  to  the  power  of  the 
human  mind  over  the  body  in  the  way  of  sympathetic 
imitation.  Since  St.  Francis'  day  many  Romanist 
divines  have  read  the  Apostle's  language  in  this  sense  ; 
but  the  interpretation  has  followed  rather  than  given 
rise  to  this  fulfilment.  In  whatever  light  these  mani- 
festations may  be  regarded,  they  are  a  striking  witness 
to  the  power  of  the  cross  over  human  nature.  Pro- 
tracted meditation  on  the  sufferings  of  our  Lord,  aided 


458  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIAN^. 


by  a  lively  imagination  and  a  susceptible  ph3'siqiit,  has 
actually  produced  a  rehearsal  of  the  bodily  pangs  and 
the  wound-marks  of  Calvary. 

This  mode  of  knovi^ing  Christ's  sufferings  "  after  the 
flesh/'  morbid  and  monstrous  as  we  deem  it  to  be,  is 
the  result  of  an  aspiration  which  however  misdirected 
by  Catholic  asceticism,  is  yet  the  highest  that  belongs 
to  the  Christian  life.  Surely  we  also  desire,  with  Paul, 
to  be  "  made  conformable  to  the  death  of  Christ."  On 
our  hearts  His  wounds  must  be  impressed.  Along  the 
pathway  of  our  life  His  cross  has  to  be  borne.  To  all 
His  disciples,  with  the  sons  of  Zebedee,  He  says,  "Ye 
shall  indeed  drink  of  My  cup  ;  and  with  the  baptism 
that  I  am  baptized  withal  shall  ye  be  baptized."  But 
"  it  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth,"  said  Jesus ;  '^  the 
flesh  profiteth  nothing."  The  pains  endured  by  the 
body  for  His  sake  are  only  of  value  when,  as  in  Paul's 
case,  they  are  the  result  and  the  witness  of  an  inward 
communion  of  the  Spirit,  a  union  of  the  will  and  the 
intelligence  with  Christ. 

The  cup  that  He  would  have  us  drink  with  Him,  is 
one  of  sorrow  for  the  sins  of  men.  His  baptism  is  that 
of  pity  for  the  misery  of  our  fellows,  of  yearning  over 
souls  that  perish.  It  will  not  come  upon  us  without 
costing  many  a  pang.  If  we  receive  it  there  will  be 
ease  to  surrender,  gain  and  credit  to  renounce,  self  to 
be  constantly  sacrificed.  We  need  not  go  out  of  our 
way  to  find  our  cross ;  we  have  only  not  to  be  blind 
to  it,  not  to  evade  it  when  Christ  sets  it  before  us.  It 
may  be  part  of  the  cross  that  it  comes  in  a  common, 
unheroic  form ;  the  service  required  is  obscure  ;  it 
consists  of  a  multitude  of  little,  vexing,  drudging  sacri- 
fices in  place  of  the  grand  and  imi?*essive  saciifice, 
which  we  should  be  proud  to  make.     To  be  martyred 


vi.  17,  ii>.]  THE  BRAND   OF  JESUS.  459 


by  inches,  out  of  sight — this  to  many  is  the  cruellest 
martyrdom  of  all.  But  it  may  be  Christ's  way,  the 
fittest,  the  only  perfect  way  for  us,  of  putting  Ilis 
brand  upon   us  and  conforming  us  to   His  death. 

Yes,  conformity  of  spirit  to  the  cross  is  the  mark  oj 
Jesus.  "If  we  suffer  with  Ilim" — so  the  Apostolic 
Churches  used  to  sing — "we  shall  also  be  glorified 
together."  In  our  recoil  from  the  artificial  penances 
and  mortifications  of  former  ages,  we  are  disposed  in 
these  days  to  banish  the  idea  of  mortification  altogether 
from  our  Christian  life.  Do  we  not  study  our  personal 
comfort  in  an  un-Christlike  fashion  ?  Are  there  not 
many  in  these  days,  bearing  the  name  of  Christ,  who 
without  shame  and  without  reproof  lay  out  their  plans 
for  winning  the  utmost  of  selfish  prosperity,  and  put 
Christian  objects  in  the  second  place  ?  How  vain 
for  them  to  cry  "  Lord,  Lord  I  "  to  the  Christ  who 
"pleased  not  Himself!"  They  profess  at  the  Lord's 
Table  to  "  show  His  death ;  "  but  to  show  that  death 
in  their  lives,  to  ''know"  with  Paul  "the  fellowship 
of  His  sufferings,"  is  the  last  thing  that  enters  into 
their  minds.  How  the  scars  of  the  brave  Apostle  put 
to  shame  the  self-indulgence,  the  heartless  luxury,  the 
easy  friendship  with  the  world,  of  fashionable  Christ- 
ians I  "Be  ye  followers  of  me,"  he  cries,  "as  I  also 
of  Christ."  He  who  shuns  that  path  cannot,  Jesus 
said,  be  My  disciple. 

So  the  blessed  Apostle  has  put  his  mark  to  this 
Epistle.  To  the  Colossians  from  his  prison  he  writes, 
"  Remember  my  bonds."  And  to  the  Galatians, 
"  Look  on  my  wounds."  These  are  his  credentials ; 
these  are  the  armorial  bearings  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 
He  places  the  seal  of  Jesus,  the  sign-manual  of  tfie 
woUfi(/jd  /iiwJ  upon  the  letter  written   in   His  name. 


46o  THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


THE     BENEDICTION. 

One  benediction  the  Apostle  has  already  uttered,  in 
ver.  1 6.  But  that  was  a  general  wish,  embracing  all 
who  should  walk  according  to  the  spiritual  rule  of 
Christ's  kingdom.  On  his  readers  specifically  he  still 
has  his  blessing  to  pronounce.  He  does  it  in  language 
differing  in  this  instance  very  little  from  that  he  is 
accustomed  to  employ. 

''The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  is  the  dis- 
tinctive blessing  of  the  New  Covenant.  It  is  to  the 
Christian  the  supreme  good  of  life,  including  or  carry- 
ing with  it  every  other  spiritual  gift.  Grace  is  Christ's 
property.  It  descended  with  the  Incarnate  Saviour 
into  the  world,  coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven. 
His  life  displayed  it ;  His  death  bestowed  it  on  man- 
kind. Raised  to  His  heavenly  throne,  He  has  become 
on  the  Father's  behalf  the  dispenser  of  its  fulness  to 
all  who  will  receive  it.  There  exalted,  thence  bestow- 
ing on  men  ''  the  abundance  of  grace  and  of  the  gift  of 
righteousness,"  He  is  known  and  worshipped  as  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

What  this  grace  of  God  in  Christ  designs,  what  it 
accomplishes  in  beheving  hearts,  what  are  the  things 
that  contradict  it  and  make  it  void,  this  Epistle  has 
largely  taught  us.  Of  its  pure,  life-giving  stream  the 
Galatians  already  had  richly  tasted.  From  "  Christ's 
grace  "  they  were  now  tempted  to  ''  remove  "  (ch.  i.  6). 
But  the  Apostle  hopes  and  prays  that  it  may  abide 
with  them. 

"  With  your  spirit,"  he  says ;  for  this  is  the  place 
of  Its  visitation,  the  throne  of  its  power.  The  spirit 
Df   man,  breathed  upon    by  the   Holy    Spirit  of  God^ 


vi.  17,  1 8.)  THE  BENEDICTION.  461 


receives  Christ's  grace  and  becomes  the  subject  and  the 
witness  of  its  regenerating  virtue.  This  benediction 
contains  the'"efore  in  brief  all  that  is  set  forth  in  the 
familiar  three-fold  formula — "the  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of  God,  and  the  communion 
cf  the  Holy  Ghost." 

After  all  his  fears  for  his  wayward  flock,  all  his 
chidings  and  reproofs,  forgiveness  and  confidence  are 
the  last  thoughts  in  Paul's  heart :  "  Brethren  "  is  the 
last  word  that  drops  from  the  Apostle's  pen, — followed 
only  by  the  confirmation  of  his  devout  Amen. 

To  his  readers  also  the  writer  of  this  book  takes 
leave  to  address  the  Apostle  Paul's  fraternal  benedic- 
tion :  The  Grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with 

YOUR  SPIRIT,  BRETHREN.       AmEN. 


J 


1  \ 


I 


